Alien Isolation: Monster Maze, an Unnoficial novelization
by alphalima1980
Summary: In 2137, a Salvage crew found the Nostromo flight recorder, missing for fifteen years; but they had also found something else, something terrible. The nightmare on Sevastopol station begins. Would the station's innabitants survive until help arrive? I don't own any Alien: Isolation characters or events, those are property of Creative Assembly and Twentieth Century Fox.
1. Prologue

**June 4th, 2122. Earth Central Time. Somewhere near the Zeta2 Reticuli system.**

The giant metallic object curved the dim blue light from a nebula near a binary star system as it dropped out from the hyper-speed without warning, leaving swirls of molecular hydrogen in its wake. It was man-made; one of the many spacecraft mankind had been using for traveling, expanding and transporting cargo from all around human colonies since the early twenty first century, when humans finally developed the Faster than Light Travel and were able to escape from their little solar system into the stars.

But unlike the sleek, elegant shape of a corporate shuttle or a space exploration ship, this object was ugly. A thick square base with four skycrapper-like towers filled with pipes, cranes and communication antennae; below each tower there was an inverted dome of unknown function. If its hull was once colored now it wasn't the case. It had the ship's usual light grey due to radiation, molecular gas and micrometeorite impacts which eventually would erode the pain if not maintained.

Hauling the metal behemoth was a ship, small if compared with its cargo but still three hundred meters long. Large letters on the hull revealed its name and registration number

U.S.C.S.S. NOSTROMO REG# 1809246(09)

It was one of many cargo haulers belonging to Weyland-Yutani Corporation that traveled the Thedus-Earth route carrying minerals and other goods. This time, Nostromo was dragging a Tesotek 2100-B automated ore refinery, with a capacity of 20 million tons of raw material back to Earth from Epsilon Reticuli.

Something was wrong. Usually, ships made the entirety of the journey at FTL, so its presence here in the interstellar space was unexpected. Inside the ship, alarms blared and the orange emergency lights spun. The corridors filled with gas and water vapor as pipes broke and sparks erupted from control panels.

-" _Attention, the automatic self-destruction system has been activated_ " a computer voice announced " _The ship will automatically destroy in 30 seconds… 29… 28… 27…_ "

As the countdown approached zero, a small ship, almost invisible due to its size, detached from the _Nostromo_ 's belly, one of the cargo freighter's lifeboats. The _Nostromo_ and the refinery continued advancing leaving behind the small shuttle, which soon was lost in the dark.

-" _Ten… Nine… Eight…_ " The computer continued the countdown.

Near its end, the _Nostromo_ launched a last object into space, so small that it didn't even shown on radar screens. Like any wrecked ship, be it air, sea or space, the flight recorder would need to survive as it contained a detailed log of everything that happened during a trip and was very helpful when clarifying the causes of the incident.

-" _Five… Four… Three… Two… One_ "

The _Nostromo_ detonated in a nuclear fireball, the initial shockwave hit the refinery with such a force that broke it in three, the Refinery's main reactor detonated next, sending the rest of the wreckage tumbling in the vacuum. The charged particles from the successive nuclear detonations created a multicolored aurora that was seen by the only two Nostromo survivors, thousands of miles away.

The flight recorder and debris from the refinery floated in the interstellar vacuum aimless for years till a nearby planet's gravity captured them. During all that time, the black box hadn't given up transmitting a signal from the integrated beacon on the small red metallic casing.

It would be another fifteen years before it was found.


	2. Chapter 1: Pandora

' _Son of Iapetos, surpassing all in cunning, you are glad that you have outwitted me and stolen fire-a great plague to you yourself and to men that shall be. But I will give men as the price for fire an evil thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they embrace their own destruction._ '

Hesiod, in _Works and days_.

 **October 20th, 2137. Earth Central Time. Deep salvage vessel** ** _Anesidora_** **, unknown planet in HR-683 system.**

Space looked peaceful, dark and silent. The zero gee and the darkness of space had that kind of beauty only matched by that of the ocean's floor. In the middle of that ocean, interstellar dust and sand left during the creation of celestial bodies drifted and twinkled like bioluminescent plankton in a background of distant stars, faded only by the light of the local sun. The perfect harmony of the dance was interrupted by the appearance of an approaching object, at first you could mistake it for one of the tiny crustaceans which feed in the darkness of the sea, bulky body, protruding antennae, and armored carapace, but the object wasn't any known animal, it was a man-made space-travel capable vehicle with its name painted on the hull with large white letters: ANESIDORA.

Inside the dark bowels of the spacecraft, lights slowly turned on in a chamber containing five sarcophagus-like glass objects. Duro-plastic lids opened and from the inside, five human beings raised very slowly. Henry Marlow woke up and groaned as he felt the cold air inside the cryogenic bay of the Anesidora, his ship.

-"Damn heaters, need a fix again" He said when his feet touched the cold floor, it was supposed the ship's heaters warmed up the room right before the crew wake up. To his left, Heyst protested: "Didn't pay enough for this, Boss."

Heyst was a tall, Swedish man with the look and nature of a Viking, specially his taste for women and beer.

-"Believe me, if I'd earn enough, I'd pay you just for not seeing your face, Heyst" Marlow answered, and then he turned right. "On other hand, I've worked for free if it means seeing yours, baby." He talked to the woman yawning as she came out of the cryotube.

Even at faster than light speed, space travel required the use of hypersleep chambers, where the crews could "sleep" during the weeks or months duration of the journey. Also, hypersleep required the crew to be naked in order to avoid freezer burns. The men and women working in space had become accustomed to see their crewmates naked as it was the most normal thing.

-"I hope this work is worth, Marlow. This ship needs a complete overhaul." The woman said, her name was Catherine and was Marlow's wife and second in command. Her blonde hair, blue eyes and her petite appearance contrasted with his taste for folk music, hard work and good jokes.

The _Anesidora_ , Marlow's ship, was an old salvage vessel, retrofitted from a _Copepod_ -class freighter. Marlow and Catherine (nee Foster) had invested all of their savings just for purchase it. They chose a _Copepod_ -Class because of its durability and large storage bays, excellent for transporting scrap metal and salvage. What they didn't know was there was not much to salvage, and when there was, corporations often paid poor fees, not enough to pay spare parts or even fuel.

Last job had taken them to _Sevastopol_ station on KG-348, gas giant on Zeta Reticuli sector, basically in the middle of nowhere. The station was in process of decommissioning but Marlow found another source of income: Black market.

The medical staff of _Sevastopol_ was short in supplies so the chief practitioner, Dr. Karen Lindgard, resorted to trade some lab supplies, mostly restricted chemicals compounds, in exchange for the much more needed antibiotics, surgical equipment and first aid kits. Lindgard's contact with Marlow was a man named Sinclair, a security officer with a questionable past who run _Sevastopol_ 's black market.

-"Are we now tow service, Marlow?" Lewis, the engineering technician commented.

Lewis was young but competent; Marlow had met him in one of the core worlds. His name was Pericles but he disliked being called by his name, so everyone call him simply Lewis.

-"Listen. The _Solace_ is a medical ship. Its FTL drive was damaged when something hit it between jumps and the crew left in the shuttle. Its mission was to transport psychiatric ward patients from Sevastopol to Helene 215 and it's carrying a pretty decent amount of medical supplies. Our dear Dr. Lindgard needs them and Sinclair surely pay well for something useful, plus we can take any part damaged. Now, everyone to the bridge"

The bridge of the _Anesidora_ was big for a ship this class, that's because Marlow had modified it, the front window was from an old _Heliades_ -class exploration vessel. Large duro-plastic alloy panels angled downward for a better view of planetary surface when orbiting. Five chairs, one for each crewmember. Two on the front, for Captain and pilot, one left for navigator, two behind, for Engineering and Communications. The red lights glowing on the bridge faded as they enter gave place to white led lights. As it was October someone had decorated the cabin with a skeleton paper doll chain. There were two plastic dinosaurs and a fern over Lewis station.

Marlow and Catherine sat on the front seats. Meeks turned on radar and comms.

-"Boss, we're approaching the _Solace_. Coming into view now" he said, turning on the screen showing a view from the docking forward camera. Meeks was Heyst best friend. Noble and truthful nature but with a disposition of find troubles in every bar he went.

-"It isn't that bad, I expected worse." Foster noted. "Anyway, what was she doing here?"

The ship was left in orbit around a large terrestrial planet. No clouds were visible, only brown and red rocks with a few topographic features. Scans shown no magnetic field, which explained the lack of a dense atmosphere. No moons, only a fine residual debris ring. Not the best candidate for colonization.

A fine trail of debris arose from the ship and it mixed with the dust and rocks ring surrounding the planet.

-"Not a good sign, but the supplies could be still intact. Bad news, it will be no scraps for us." –Marlow started to give orders. "Heyst, Meeks, you go looking for anything useful the crew left behind and see if we can learn what the _Solace_ was doing here, outside the Sol-Thedus flight path. Catherine, you're in command, and watch for objects. Lewis, check the radar, if a meteor had hit the Solace, could be others, we don't want any surprises"

Foster maneuvered the ship and parked hers next to the _Solace_ , Marlow opened the airlock and used their EVA maneuver equipment, dubbed the " _Bedstead_ " to transport Heyst and Meeks to the _Solace_ 's airlock.

The _Bedstead_ was an ugly piece of machinery, basically a pilot seat, hydrazine tanks, old satellite maneuvering system and a submersible's robotic arm all welded together in a structure that looks like an old brass bed frame, hence its name. Heyst and Meeks were holding the frame, fastened by safety cables.

-"Ok, time to relax with some music from old John Denver" Catherine reclined on her seat and extended legs over the panel as she watched the bedstead reach the _Solace_ , she sang "Flying for me"

 _My being there would bring us a little step closer together_  
 _They were flying for me_  
 _They were flying for everyone_  
 _They were trying to see a brighter day for each and every one_  
 _They gave us their light_  
 _They gave us their spirit and all they could be_  
 _They were flying for me_  
 _They were flying for me_  
 _And I wanted to wish upon the Milky Way_  
 _And dance upon a falling star_

Marlow parked next to the main airlock; the magnetic boots of his suit prevented them from flying into outer space in zero gee. He opened the keyboard. As the door needed a password and Marlow didn't know it, he took his Access Tuner, a hacking device which used radio signal for tune a code sequence shown in a CRT screen as a series of geometric symbols. Matching those symbols unlocked the mechanism. CRT screens were used on EVA devices, because the more recent LCD touchscreen devices didn't work in vacuum and broke easily.

Meanwhile, in the umbilical, Heyst opened the airlock and he and Meeks stepped inside. There was a hiss of air as the door closed and matched pressure. "We're inside, Foster" Meeks informed.

-"Proceed to medical, first secure the supplies, then recover the captain's log. See if there's something useful." Marlow ordered "I'll check the exterior of the hull, pick you up when you finish."

The pair kept moving through the main corridor until they reached Medical bay, the door opened and they entered. There was a reception desk, a waiting room and a big panel indicating " LAB, WARD ˄ DISPENSARY ", they headed to dispensary.

-"We're in Dispensary, everything is in place. We have antibiotics, alcohol, surgical equipment, serum and glucose packages, morphine… maybe some of it will get lost in transit." Meeks said.

-"Nobody touches anything" Marlow said over comm link.

-"Sorry, pal. No drugs for you, at least not in service." Heyst told him.

-"Oh right, everything in order there, proceed to Captain's quarters." Marlow ordered.

Captain's quarters were located next to the bridge, so they back towards the corridor and continue ship's bow. A panel reads "CAPTAIN BARRELL, J. , BRIDGE ˄" They turned left and opened the door. The room was clean and ordered, bed well made. Heyst looked some photos on the wall which showed Captain Barrell was military; apparently he had fought in the Torin Prime civil war and had seen much action. Clearly he was not in panic when they were hit, they simply left the ship in a parking orbit, boarded the shuttle and head for Sevastopol some days away.

Heyst turned on the computer and downloaded the ship's log. "I got it, Marlow. We're going back to engineering and check the FTL drive."

-"Negative, I'm seeing a nasty hole from here right through the engine room. Must have been done by a meteor, it hit the drive and part of the coolant storage." Get back to the airlock" Marlow ordered.

They returned to the Anesidora and Marlow guided the Bedstead back inside its hangar and Foster maneuvered the ship moving away from the Solace. Once everybody were on the Bridge, they were ready to leave the system.

-"Ok Foster, leave orbit and prepare the FTL drive, we are leaving as soon as possible." Marlow ordered.

-"Sub-light thrusters online, leaving orbit in three, two, one, calculations for FTL will be ready in…" Foster typed on her station's keyboard. A red light turned on followed by a beep, but soon stopped. "Odd, I swear we received a signal from a beacon."

-"There's nobody on this system. All Solace's crew arrived at Sevastopol, no one was left behind." Marlow said.

-"Maybe is Solace's flight recorder, ejected when they were hit" Heyst told them.

-"If there's a flight recorder here, then some corporate suits will pay a lot of money for it. It must be into that planet's debris ring. I'll tell you what we do, we'll recover the flight recorder, return it to whatever corporation it belongs to, and get us a bigger check than selling meds and scrap." Marlow explained.

\- o -


	3. Chapter 2: Siren

" _There's always a siren, singing you to shipwreck. Some of us may be more susceptible than others are, but there's always a siren. It may be with us all our lives, or it may be many years or decades before we find it or it finds us. But when it does find us, if we're lucky we're Odysseus tied up to the ship's mast, hearing the song with perfect clarity, but ferried to safety by a crew whose ears have been plugged with beeswax. If we're not at all lucky, we're another sort of sailor stepping off the deck to drown in the sea._ "

Caitlín R. Kiernan. _The Drowning Girl_.

 **October 20th, 2137. Earth Central Time, in orbit around Unknown planet in the HR683 system.**

The planet's coloration changed from reddish to brown to purple and finally black as the ship orbited towards the night side. The dust ring surrounding the planet turned invisible but not for the infrared camera of the _Anesidora_ , which showed it bright green in the CRT screens of the cabin. Marlow and his crew were at HR683 system, 1.89 light years from Zeta1 Reticuli.

The thin to non-existent atmosphere made the planet below unsuitable for a colony, whatever atmosphere created by terraformation will be blown to space by solar winds, but minerals could be extracted by automated refineries.

The ship maneuvered until was locked in a parking orbit just outside the debris ring. Then they scanned looking for any radio signal.

-"I have the beacon, Marlow" Lewis said, seated on the Comms console.

-"Good, give me its position so I can recover it with the _Bedstead_ " Marlow opened the airlock and maneuvered the _Bedstead_ towards the dust ring.

-"Have you covered Boss, there's nothing on radar coming to you." Heyst told him. He was monitoring radar and infrared.

-"Meeks, how's everything on engineering?" Foster, who was piloting the ship, asked to the technician, in engine's room.

-"Everything is right so far. Sub-light engines doing well but we need to get them checked as soon as possible." He responded.

-"OK. I' m approaching the beacon, five hundred meters ahead. Dust getting coarser but nothing to worry." Marlow informed through radio. Fine dust particles stuck on the helmet's visor; as far as there was dust he was safe. In orbit, even an object small as a screw can make a lot of damage.

-"Visual contact any second" Foster told him.

Through his visor, Marlow saw a dim light twinkle. When he was closer, he could see the light came from a red and black box floating among the debris.

-"See it! It's an old flight recorder. Looks intact, maybe battery is almost run off, that's why the signal is faint." Marlow continued. He used the robotic arm in the _Bedstead_ to grab the red metallic box and secured it in the vehicle's tool cage. "I got it, returning to ship."

Once the airlock was closed and re-pressurized, Marlow took the flight recorder to the bridge, he put it on the table and checked registration number. The little screen showed:

U.S.C.S.S. NOSTROMO

REG NUMBER: 180924609

CREW: 7

DESTINATION: SOL

PROPERTY OF: WEYLAND YUTANI

-"Property of Weyland Yutani, Is anything about the _Nostromo_ in the files, Foster?" Marlow said.

Every salvage vessel had an extended database about missing ships, spacecraft junkyards, outposts and stations. When a ship got lost, it was added to the database, so any salvage ship in the area could search for it. Perhaps the most famous shipwreck was the _Prometheus_ , one of the first deep space exploration vessels, lost with all hands including CEO Meredith Vickers, the daughter of famous engineer and innovator, Sir Peter Weyland.

-"The ship disappeared in 2122; it was towing an ore refinery from Thedus back to Sol. All hands lost without a trace." Foster informed.

-"Well, maybe W-Y will pay a good fee for the flight recorder; they'll want to know what happened to their ship." Heyst commented.

-"It disappeared because they never found the recorder. Now there's a trace, we could follow it and find the wreckage by ourselves" Marlow suggested.

-"Marlow, tampering with flight recorder data nullifies any reward the company is offering." Meeks reminded him.

-"We don't gonna mess with data, we will only extrapolate the path and search near the last known location of the ship." Marlow explained. "See if we can find her."

-"Sounds like a good plan, Boss. Even if the ship was destroyed by a reactor explosion, the shockwave will not completely destroy the refinery. That's a lot of scrap." Lewis said.

The crew connected the flight recorder to the NAV computer and downloaded flight path data.

The computer showed a line from point of origin in Epsilon Reticuli (Thedus) to Sol system, as the old flight path was, before the construction of Wright-Aberra fuel depot, 16 light years distance, and LV-44-40 at Zeta Doradus which was the new route. But the ship diverted towards Z2 Reticuli, and then turned again towards Sol, about a day in the new flight path, the ship disappeared.

-"Well, looks like it was under our noses all this time, let's start looking from the last location, there." Marlow pointed somewhere one light year Z2 on the screen.

The journey took them through interstellar space bound following the opposite direction of the Nostromo, there was no star, or dust, nothing, only darkness. They turned on all sensors: infrared, ultraviolet, radio, mass spectrograph, x-ray, even neutrino and tachyon detectors.

-"Radar and infrared shows no objects, no rogue planets either." Catherine said.

-"Spectrometer didn't detect any metallic body, only residual hydrogen and helium. The refinery is not here." Heyst informed.

-"Marlow, Neutrino detector shows an additional source from Zeta 2 sector." Lewis told him.

-"Run a scan of the peak energy and see if it's artificial. A damaged reactor from the wreckage could be the source." Marlow ordered.

Lewis typed orders to the computer and few seconds later, the results popped on screen.

-"Got it, the source is artificial. Possible sources matched those of fusion or antimatter reactor."

-"Let's find that wreckage" Foster exclaimed.

The ship headed towards the neutrino source, and when they were inside the solar wind influence sphere, they detected a new signal. This time was on radio.

-"We have an acoustic beacon, repeating every twelve seconds." Meeks informed.

-"Put it on." Marlow ordered. A pitching noise filled the PA, it sounded like a high pitch scream. "What the hell was that? It sounds like someone screaming in panic"

-"Seems like the dust ring and solar winds prevented that radio signal from being detected beyond the system. That's why even Sevastopol can't hear it." Marlow explained. "And as for the neutrino signal; well, our ships use tachyon leap-waves for superluminal communications, neutrinos are less efficient."

-"Okey, we'll approach the system at sub-light speed. It will take us a few days, there's a lot of debris here and we don't want get hit in something critical" Foster said.

\- o -

 **October 24th, 2137. Earth Central Time. Somewhere inside the Zeta2 Reticuli system.**

They reached destination about four days later. They were in orbit of a brown reddish gas giant, surrounded by a debris ring and three moons. Scanning showed two of the moons were earth-like sized, dense atmosphere, almost primordial, lot of dust. The signal was being sent from the one with deep blue clouds which obscured the surface. The other one had a clearer atmosphere, grey brown terrain, almost right mix of gases but lethal levels of carbon monoxide.

-"Zeta2 Reticuli, this system was discovered in 2039, when scout probes were looking for Earth like planets and moons. This planet's radiation belt forms a habitable zone on its own, and these moons, LV-223 and LV-426 are in the middle of it." Foster read the files.

-"The signal comes from LV-426, that moon covered in clouds, we can't see the surface."

-"Doppler shows rough terrain, Marlow" Lewis informed. "Signal's coming from a mountain range near equator."

-"Spectrometer data reads lots of CO2 and methane, Sulphur anhydride. It seems like volcanic activity." Heyst told the others. "Maybe it's not a good idea."

-" _Anesidora_ can resist winds over 500 km/hour, that's a five class hurricane, but I'm not sure about the dust and corrosion." Foster replied.

-"Take us down as near as possible. There… that lava plateau seems enough flat for landing." Marlow ordered.

The _Anesidora_ initiated descent, as there wasn't enough oxygen, the thermal shield didn't burned on reentry, but the bridge's temperature rose. The ship landed over its three retractable landing legs. Silica dust and volcanic ash hit the duro-plastic windshield.

-"Signal source is about hundred meters ahead." Meeks told them.

-"Everyone, gear up. Lewis, you stay here on the ship." Marlow continued. "We find that signal and the wreckage."

They headed for the ship's hangar.

\- o -


	4. Chapter 3: Monsters in the Dark

" _What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams._ "

Werner Herzog, _German screenwriter and film director_.

 **October 24th, 2137. Earth Central Time, the surface of the Unknown moon orbiting Planet IV, Zeta2 Reticuli System.**

Foster adjusted her helmet, once sealed; the visor displayed a Head Up Display, showing date, mission time and user bio-readings: EKG, temperature, pressure, oxygen level.

DATE: OCTOBER 24TH, 2137. EARTH CENTRAL TIME.

MISSION TIME: 00:00:39

FOSTER, C.

She, Marlow, Meeks and Heyst were in the ship's main cargo hold. The hold can be dropped from the ventral hull by large four pneumatic pistons.

-"Comm check, you get me Lewis?" – Marlow said through radio.

-"Little fuzzy Marlow, but you coming through" Lewis responded.

Lewis stayed in the bridge to guide them over radio. Marlow pulled out a radio signal detector. An ugly yellow box with four antennae whose meter needles point the transmission source's bearing.

-"Let's take it slow, I want to get to that beacon in one piece." Foster told the others.

-"If you want to come over a piece I have something for you right here" Heyst commented pointing his crotch.

-"I need scanning device for that, Heyst" Foster replied.

-"OK, enough already, focus in what we have here. I don't want any mistakes." Marlow put a stop to the double meaning chat. "Foster, Meeks, keep your eyes open."

The main door descended and immediately dust and wind penetrated the interior, throwing some ash, silica dust and pebbles inside.

Catherine followed her husband, Heyst and Meeks trailing behind. They walked for a while inside what looks like a ravine. Geysers erupted all over the place. Ash and water vapor fogged their visors making the hiking difficult. All Foster can hear was the wind howling, water hissing and the sound of carbon dioxide being expelled by the compression suits' life support system.

-"Hate this kind of job, isn't Meeks?" Heyst protested.

-"Sub-zero temperature. Low visibility" Foster informed.

-"Check out those rocks formations" Marlow said.

-"Maybe this is natural weather conditions." Foster responded.

Ahead there were a pile of rocks obstructing their way, Catherine couldn't say if the rubble was recent or was a million years ago.

-"I'll look around; see if I can find a weak spot. Wait here" Marlow looked around and saw a good place where he can climb. "Gonna need a lift; Heyst, give me a hand."

Foster saw Marlow climb the ridge with Heyst's help. Marlow disappeared from visual but she can hear him somewhere above. Pebbles fell from the ridge.

-"I found a path, I'm checking out" a tremor shook the place with a thunderous roar. "Tremors! Shit!" Marlow exclaimed.

-"That was a close one." Foster told him. "Marlow, we see you."

-"Stay close, I think I found something. There's a fissure in the rock, stay back. I'm gonna blow it" Marlow place a demolition charge in the fissure, stepped back, pulled a remote detonator and pressed the button as same as he warned: "Fire in the hole!"

An explosion rumbled, there wasn't enough oxygen to form flames but the charge was enough to make a way. Marlow appeared from the rubble.

-"Don't do that to me again." Foster told him.

They continued until another pile of rocks cut the way in. Heyst helped Marlow climb the ravine and planted another charge. Once the way was cleared, Marlow exclaimed:

-"Hey, you better take a look at this!"

-"What is it, Marlow?" Meeks asked.

Catherine was expecting to see the wreckage of the _Nostromo_ 's refinery, but what she saw was the most bizarre thing she ever been seen. A horse shoe shaped object rested in the mountains, she couldn't define if it was a ship or a building. From distance almost seems like made of bone, something out of the twisted mind of a Swiss artist.

Another tremor shocked the ridge, and for a moment the storm stopped and they had a better view of the landscape. A long and wide skid mark indicated the object, a ship, had crashed. Beyond a slightly taller mountain expelled a thick ash column.

-"Marlow, Foster. Seismic activity shows harmonic tremors, the whole thing is on verge of an eruption." Lewis' voice crackled over radio.

-"If the volcano erupts could damage the artifact." Heyst exclaimed.

-"The artifact? Us!" Meeks answered, frightened.

-"OK, let's secure the site." Foster told them.

The four kept walking until they reached the derelict. The terrain ascents to three large, almost vagina-like apertures in the hull, something Heyst happily pointed.

-"Looks like a big p*ssy, Looks like a big p*ssy.

-"Why'd you said it twice?" Meeks asked.

-"I didn't" Heyst responded with a big smile, Meeks laughed too.

-"Men" said Foster, shaking her head.

-"What the hell of seek we'll gonna find in it?" Heyst asked, back into his serious voice tone.

-"Something big" Marlow responded with a smile.

They climbed and entered the opening. The interior was a dark corridor, the walls with the same bio-mechanoid style. Catherine felt they were swallowed by a large animal and were falling towards its stomach. A dim light glowed ahead.

-"There's an opening up ahead." Meeks said.

-"Oh my god!" Foster exclaimed.

-"Shit!" Heyst seconded.

They were inside a large circular chamber, the roof barely visible by the fog. But the most prominent feature was what looked like a giant chair with a telescope pointing to the opening in the chamber's apex. A large creature sat in the chair, dead long ago, judging by its bony appearance.

-"Careful with what you touch, I don't want any damaged." Marlow ordered.

-"It's amazing" Foster exclaimed, seeing the creature. "How old must this be?"

-"What is it? A cockpit? Shit, I think we find our payload." Heyst exclaimed, evidently excited.

-"Hey, quiet!" Meeks scolded him.

-"Why? You think is gonna wake?"

-"Sorry pal"

-"Can it, we're wasting time. Have a look around." Marlow scolded back the pair.

-"It's a life form." Catherine exclaimed.

-"It was a life-form, now's property, salvage rights." Marlow told her. "We need to state our claim before anyone does it."

-"The _Anesidora_ is not prepared for something this big." Meeks responded.

-"Then we take what we can and come back."

Foster and Heyst climbed the pedestal where the pilot's chair was located, sand have been accumulating since God knows when. Then, she saw skid marks in the sand, obviously not made by the derelict's crew. She followed the marks and she found something else: Human equipment, boxes and pieces of an old winch next to a hole in the floor. The hole looked as if someone had melted a sewer's manhole cover.

-"Marlow, we found something. A track, looks like something was dragged, and that's not all. You're not gonna like this." Foster informed her husband.

-"Same name as on the flight recorder, _Nostromo_ " Heyst said. "Someone has been here."

-"Maybe they abandoned ship and landed here." Catherine told them.

-"I can see that. Shit." Marlow cursed.

-"If they were here, why there's no record of this place?" Meeks asked.

-"Dunno, but if they're alive, there goes our salvage."

-"I'll find the beacon and shut it down; I don't want anyone find this place." Marlow said, and then ordered. "Foster, Heyst. Check out the cavern below."

Marlow climbed down the pedestal, pulled out the signal detector and walked towards the north side of the chamber, Meeks followed. Foster saw him disappear into a corridor like the one they entered. As the former, it was dark but a bluish light glow up ahead.

He entered another chamber with a strange bulbous device, tubes and cables protruding from the sides. There was a control panel in front of him but it hasn't any button, instead, there were some semi-spheres, and they glowed. To Marlow, the device was some kind of neutrino based transmitter. It was old but advanced at the same time.

-"Meeks, I found the beacon, I'm gonna check it out." Marlow said.

At the center, inside a magnetic field shaped like an electrostatic sphere, was an idol, or at least seemed like one. The elongated object had a head like the ones of Easter Island, the _Moai_ , with a stylized body, as if the head was the most important in the aesthetics of its creators.

Markings on the panel resembled hieroglyphs or cuneiform writing. Marlow wondered if those were really ancient Babylon language and their gods were ancient astronauts. He touched the idol floating inside the magnetic field and with a buzz, the field collapsed and suddenly everything went off.

-"I don't know what happened, but the beacon stopped broadcasting" said Lewis in the radio.

Catherine Foster was already down with Heyst. The cavern below was huge; it occupied all the ship's underbelly because it had a curved shape. The floor was divided in sections. One of these sections was covered by a strange blue mist. An array of leathery, egg-shaped objects was placed inside the mist.

-"Marlow, you need to see this, it's amazing." Catherine exclaimed.

-"I'm on my way." Marlow responded.

-"This place just keeps on giving." Meeks was harnessing Marlow to the winch. "Strap yourself on this."

Catherine descended into the mist wondering what the objects were, "If those were eggs, then must be dragon eggs" thought Catherine. She remembered fairy tales, and how in those stories when there was a dragon, there was a treasure nearby. The nearest egg was opened. Four petal-like flaps in its upper part lay extended outside, the interior was hollow.

-"Be careful Catherine, wait for Marlow." Heyst told her.

-"I'm coming down" Marlow said over coms.

Catherine turned to see Marlow hanging from the winch, slowly descending. Behind her, another egg opened like a bud on spring. She turned around and peered inside, hoping for a beautiful baby bird to emerge. Then, all went dark.

\- o -


	5. Chapter 4: Trojan Horse

" _Equo ne credite, Teucri. quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes._

 _Do not trust the horse, Trojans. Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even when they bring gifts._ "

Virgil, _Aeneid_.

 **October 24th, 2137. Earth Central Time, Inside Derelict alien ship, LV-426, unexplored moon of Zeta2 Reticuli System.**

-"Catherine! Catherine!" Marlow screamed.

He was on the floor, still strapped to the harness. He saw the thing open and Catherine turned back to see it. It happened too fast, something exploded from inside the object and then Foster fell backwards, a hole pierced in helmet's visor. Air hissing as it escaped from the suit.

-"Foster!" Heyst ran and leaned to her side, and tried to close the hole with his hands. "Marlow, help me! If we don't seal the breach, she's dead."

Marlow was thinking the same, as he pulled some patching kit from his belt. Usually the kits were designed for small breaches made by micro meteors, breaking the visor was an assured death, but they weren't in outer space, the atmospheric pressure was similar those of Earth's, it was the mix of gases and temperature what would certainly kill Foster in matter of minutes.

-"What the hell?" Marlow exclaimed as he saw a strange pink-yellowish creature inside Foster's helmet.

-"What is it, Marlow?" asked Heyst.

-"There's something inside, must be the thing from that egg. It breached the visor and got inside." Marlow answered. "Meeks, she's strapped. Lift her out. It's an emergency."

The winch slowly pulled up Foster, then Marlow and Heyst both strap them and got out the derelict's cargo hold. Once outside they saw Meeks already checking the body.

-"Marlow, She's alive but unconscious. That thing over her face prevented her from breathing the atmosphere, but what I don't know is from where she's getting oxygen." Meeks noted.

-"We need to get her inside the ship. Temperature drop may cause her frostbite." Heyst said the two.

-"Lewis, we had an emergency, prepare the medical bay." Marlow told through radio.

-"Roger that, Marlow. But you have to make it fast, we have a bigger problem." Lewis responded.

-"What is it?" Marlow asked, at that moment, another tremor shocked the place with roaring sound.

-"There's an eruption. A fissure opened near your position." Lewis informed.

Marlow, Heyst and Meeks emerged from the derelict carrying Foster in a makeshift stretcher. The ash had thickened, running across the rough terrain was painful already, plus they were carrying Foster. Marlow didn't know if she'd make it to the ship.

He was glad as the cargo bay's doors closed and fresh air flowed. Foster bio-readings showed she was stable, still unconscious. The thing from the derelict must've acted like a mask, but he wondered why she wasn't suffocated. "I don't care as long as she's still alive." Marlow thought. They took Foster to medical, but one of the things the _Anesidora_ lacked was a functional autodoc. They don't even had one of those old Pauling Medpod 720i.

-"We need to take her off the compression suit." Heyst said.

-"I have a plasma shear here" Meeks passed a pencil like object to Marlow. "Careful, we don't want to cut her, or that thing."

Marlow cut the helmet and suit and proceeded to take it off. Once out, he had a first row view of the abomination wrapped around his wife's head. It seemed like a mixture of a Japanese spider crab, a hand and a scorpion. Two flat flap-like protuberances each side, these flaps were pulsating, long finger-like legs wrapped around Foster's head and a long, segmented tail coiled around her neck.

-"I'm going to cut that thing off." Marlow said, turning the plasma shear on.

-"Wait! We don't know what it that could do to Foster, we need a scan first." Lewis told him.

-"What we need is a hospital." Heyst opined.

-"We never pass her through quarantine with that" Meeks exclaimed, pointing to the thing.

-"Then we'll bring the medic aboard if necessary." A determined Marlow exclaimed. "Meanwhile, we need to get out this rock."

They secured Foster in the medical bay and headed for the bridge. The ash fall had intensified through the windows. Thunders roared everywhere.

-"Initiating take off procedures," Marlow sat on pilot's chair. "Thrusters on"

The cargo hold retracted inside the ship's belly and the _Anesidora_ took off the cold surface, leaving a wake of condensate exhaust from the four thrusters. It retracted its landing legs, some ash and dust was caught inside the landing gear pods.

-"Hundred meters and ascending." Marlow informed.

-"Marlow, radar and infrared shows the lava flow reached the derelict." Lewis told him.

IR Radar imaging shown a thick lava flow pouring towards the ancient ship from above and covered the protruding portside, it broke and fell to the ground, Marlow grinned.

-"Maybe the lava will destroy that damned ship, or at least pour inside the cargo bay and burn those motherfuckers back to wherever hell they came." Marlow said angrily.

As the _Anesidora_ ascended, infrared signature intensified as the volcano erupted and ejected debris all over the place. Some of the molten slag hit the _Anesidora_ and melted part of the circuitry which runs through the hull. An alarm sounded.

-"Were hit!"

-"We still can fly, we need to get out this place and take Foster to _San Cristobal_ , it's the nearest hospital." Marlow told them.

Seeing the pyroclastic cloud, Marlow now was sure the Derelict ship was destroyed and he felt relieved.

-"The debris hit part of the hyperdrive circuitry, we can't go FTL, we'll fry." Lewis typed and informed.

-"Damn, Can we fix it?"

-"Not with what we have. But we still can travel at near light speed."

-"At near light speed will take almost two weeks!" Marlow cursed. "Lewis, run a system check, see if there's any damage in other system. We can't risk going to cryo and the whole thing fall apart while we're sleeping."

-"System check will take us at least 24 hours." Lewis responded.

-"Do it, the sooner the better. Meanwhile I'll be looking over Catherine." He headed towards the medical bay.

Lewis typed in the console and ran a system check. The screen flashed with numbers indicating it will be completed in 22:57:13. Almost a day later, Marlow was reclined in one of the seats, Foster lying on the bed. EKG and temperature just below normal, there wasn't any freezer burns, but the thing was firmly attached. Marlow had tried to pull it off but the thing tightened its fingers and tail.

Lewis, Heyst and Meeks entered the room and told Marlow the computer just finished the system check. There was damage in the main antenna but nothing wrong with other critical systems so they could head to _Sevastopol_ in cryo. They saw Foster in bed and told Marlow.

-"We can't pull it off without knowing what it's doing. So far, it protected Foster from depressurization it caused. But with what end?" Heyst opined.

-"Maybe we can inject it with morphine, if it relaxes its grip, we can pull it off." Lewis said.

-"Or we kill it along with Foster." Meeks told him.

-"We have to try, Heyst, find a syringe." Marlow ordered Heyst.

Suddenly, the creature started to convulse, its finger like legs relaxed and the tail uncoiled. The thing jumped and fell to the floor, where it turned upside down and curled legs like an insecticide sprayed cockroach.

-"What the Fuck?" Marlow exclaimed.

-"It's dead?" Meeks asked.

-"I don't know, maybe. Certainly something happened to it." Heyst answered.

Marlow leaned over the little beast, examining it. The creature seemed dead and Marlow wondered if was a natural cause or something in human biology did it. "Never mind, it's dead, but Foster still needs a check, that creature could be carrier of a disease or something. It's the only way to be sure." Marlow thought.

-"Hey, Marlow, Foster's vital signs are stabilizing. It seems she'll be regaining conscious anytime soon" Meeks exclaimed.

-"I'll keep checking her out. You and Heyst, take that thing and put it in a jar. Maybe the doctor would want to run a test battery on that."

An hour later, Catherine woke up, disoriented, dizzy, as she had attended a crazy party.

-"Are you okay, Catherine?" Marlow asked her.

-"I'm fine, just… I… Did I miss something?" Foster answered.

-"You were unconscious, a nasty creature wrapped around your face like a bizarre koala." Henry responded.

-"I don't remember. I looked around when that thing opened and then all went dark."

-"Don't worry. Luckily you didn't breathe the atmosphere for a long time. The creature sealed your mouth and nose." Marlow informed her. "It's time for you to go to sleep. Whatever the thing did to you, stasis will stop it until we arrive to the hospital."

-"I'm fine, don't worry for me. What happened to the wreckage?"

-"Last thing we saw. Lava was burying it for good." Marlow told her. "Now, it's bedtime, no excuses."

She reluctantly agreed and Marlow helped Foster lie down in one of the coffin-like hyper-sleep chambers, he kissed his wife on the forehead before the plastic lid closed and then he and the others went to their own chambers.

\- o -

The journey from Zeta2 Reticuli back to KG-348 which usually took about ten hours in FTL, took them sixteen days at almost light speed. In fact they started deceleration some time before entering the Zeta1 Reticuli system. When they had visual of _Sevastopol_ , they opened a channel and hailed.

-" _Sevastopol_ Station, this is Henry Marlow, Captain of the salvage ship _Anesidora_ , requesting permission to dock, we need medical assistance. Please, let us board so our crewmate can be checked." Marlow hailed.

-"Please stand by. Your call is being attended." APOLLO's metallic voice answered.

-"The moment you said medical assistance, they're gonna throw us out of here." Heyst said.

-" _Sevastopol_ Station, we have in our possession a significant salvage, a flight recorder property of Weyland Yutani. Our long range antenna is damaged and we need to contact the company so we can deliver it for the right fee." Marlow told them, and then to his crew. "Maybe this helps us convince them."

The radio crackled, and then another voice, Human this time, spoke.

" _Anesidora_ , this is Marshal Waits of _Sevastopol_. Officially, I should deny your request to dock. _Sevastopol_ is currently being decommissioned and I can't compromise security for unscheduled vessels. However... in the light of the property you found I will allow a small number of your crew to dock via a short-range shuttle. I must remind you that _Sevastopol_ is entitled to a cut of any reward for return of said-property once it's on station. Let me know your decision. Waits out."

-"Wait Marlow, we don't need to share our reward. Foster is fine now, maybe that thing did nothing." Meeks told Marlow.

-"What are you saying Meeks? I'm the Captain, I decide what's best" Marlow scolded him.

-"But, we're breaking quarantine. At least we have to tell them about the creature." Meeks insisted.

-"Meeks, enough" Heyst intervened.

-"Marlow, please, this must be done right. We can get us arrested, lose the ship."

-"She's my wife, Meeks, don't push it. You're crossing the line." Marlow was getting impatient.

-"I'm gonna tell that Marshall…"

Meeks didn't finish the sentence. Marlow punched the man right on the face. Meeks fell backwards, both hands on his nose. Heyst helped him to stand up. He was bleeding profusely.

-"Meeks, are you okay?" told him. "Marlow, you and Lewis take the shuttle and get Foster to the hospital. I stay here with Meeks and make him come into reason."

One of the shuttles docked with the Anesidora and Marlow, Lewis and Foster left for _San Cristobal_ Medical Facility. Sometime later, another shuttle docked, Heyst and Meeks headed to the flight terminal.

\- o -

 **November 11th, 2137, Earth Central Time. Spaceflight Terminal,** ** _Sevastopol_** **station, KG-348.**

Marshall William Waits was outside the shuttle docking bay when the hatch opened and Marlow, Foster and Lewis entered. Officers Dale Turner and Matthew Harris accompanied them. They were the ones who piloted the shuttle and now Harris was searching Marlow for weapons or other smuggling items. The woman doesn't look so good, like she had the flu or the worse hangover case Waits had ever seen.

-"Raise your arms while we search, please." Harris ordered. Marlow raised arms and turned around.

-"What he had, Harris?" Waits asked.

-"Pistol, extra magazine…a plasma shear, rated level 3, watch, wallet, medical supplies… some of it illegal; And this, Flight recorder unit property of W-Y." Harris informed.

-"What did you'd think? Bringing weapons and illegal items aboard, Marlow? We'll keep the pistol, shear and meds. You can keep your wallet and watch. Turner, Take the flight recorder and give it to Chief Porter or Mike Tanaka in the archive, secure it until the company come to retrieve it." Waits ordered.

-"Hey, the right to bear arms followed us to space, isn't space the new frontier, Marshall?" Marlow responded.

-"Not in my town, cowboy" Waits said. "By the way, your wife looks sick. In the message you said you need medical assistance."

-"She suffered a decompression accident, Marshall; fortunately, nothing serious. If your medic can check her…" Marlow told him

-"Negative, you know the procedure. Unless there were serious injuries, I can't let you pass. Seegson security Chief Sinclair will take you two to observation."

Sinclair arrived at that moment; he accompanied Marlow, Foster and Lewis outside towards Security check. The procedure indicates 24 to 48 hours pass before anyone can have a clear check.

-"I need to take my wife to Medical, Sinclair." Marlow told the man. "Do it for an old friend."

-"Shut up, Marlow. Wait until the Marshall can't hear us." Sinclair responded with a smile.

-"Lewis, go to Communications and send a message to Wey-Yu about our salvage."

The trio took a detour towards the transit car terminal. Although most of the transport system was disabled, a few cars remained operative due to the stations enormous size. They entered a car headed for the SciMed Tower where _San Cristobal_ Medical Facility was located while Lewis took the one for Lorenz SysTech spire.

\- o -


	6. Chapter 5: The Beast Inside

" _Because inside me is a beast that snarls, and growls, and strains toward freedom… And as hard as I try, I cannot kill it._ "

Veronica Roth, _Insurgent_.

 **November 12th, 2137. Earth Central Time.** ** _San Cristobal_** **Medical Facility,** ** _Sevastopol_** **Station, KG-348.**

Chief practitioner Karen Lachele Lindgard was logging a report on the _Sevastolink_ network. Every day, as the chief medical officer, she had to report any significant incident at the _San Cristobal_ Medical Facility, the Station's hospital.

Every single station constructed by mankind along the colonized space had some kind of medical facility. Occupying two thirds of the SciMed tower, _San Cristobal_ was the largest up-to-date hospital in the outer rim. Properly named after Saint Christopher, the saint and protector of travelers, It was conceived to deal with all kind of medical emergencies in trade routes and as a treatment center for patients affected by the isolation and stress of working in a hostile and desolate environment such as outer space. But with the incoming decommissioning, it was reduced to an almost basic medic clinic, and Karen Lindgard did her best to keep the facility running.

As with the rest of the station services, _Sevastolink_ network was operating at minimum capacity, only basic mail and text messaging was available, so she had to type her informs in the APOLLO databases. Decommissioning had taken a lot of troubles for the already reduced medical personnel.

First, the medical ship, the _Solace_ , which meant to take the psychiatric ward patients was hit and its crew got back in the shuttle, so the patients had to be transported in passenger shuttles sedated or in hypersleep chambers, leaving the station short of outbound flights.

Second, Dr. Morley discovered Dr. Kulhman had crossed the line and locked the doctor in his office for substance abuse, patient mistreatment and possibly medical supplies theft.

And finally, that incident with Seegson Executive Barker, that asshole who four days ago sent a complaint wanting to be attended by a human orderly because he was too important to be cared by an android. Medical staff had assigned Jeanine O'Sullivan and the rich bastard sexually harassed her.

She looked the clock; it was the late hours of November 11th, 2137 Earth Central Time when she started her report, now there was midday November 12th, but here in outer space, in a station around a gas giant the only way you're conscious of day and night was onboard clocks. She sipped her coffee and sighted; in a few hours her turn will end and she can go to her apartment in the Solomons habitation tower. She relaxed her arms but then, the intercom crackled.

-"Dr. Lindgard, please present at reception. Dr. Lindgard, reception. You're asked for a consultation" The receptionist voice announced.

-"I'm on my way." Karen responded, and then she dialed another number. "Dr. Morley, meet me at reception."

She crossed the hallway towards reception, there, she meet a well-built man with tattoos and a late thirties blonde woman who look tired. She had never seen them before but that's understandable given the station, yet with a tenth of the crew, had at least 500 people living there, plus the crew of many supply ships actually going in and out; there was impossible to know each one of them.

-"Dr. Lindgard? I'm Henry Marlow and this is my wife and crewmate Catherine Foster." The man extended his right hand to the doctor.

-"It's nice to meet you Marlow, Foster." Karen greets both of them, and then she introduced them to her fellow medic. "He's my colleague Dr. Morley. What can we do for you?"

-"My wife suffered a decompression accident back at job and I like you to run a complete check on her just to make sure she's right now." Marlow explained.

-"I'm feeling fine now, Marlow" the woman, Catherine said.

-"It's the only way to be sure, babe." Marlow told her, and then added to the doctors "She's a tough girl."

-"Well, she doesn't look hurt, no eyes, nose or ear bleeding. But I tell radiologist Jeffrey West run a full scan. Please, come." Lindgard told them to follow her.

They walked across a hallway towards radiology. Signs indicated the different areas: MATERNITY, RECOVERY ROOMS 101-120, SURGERY, INTENSIVE CARE UNIT, etc. in both English and Japanese. They arrived at the hatch signaled AUTODOC UNIT. West typed a code and they entered. Around twenty machines lined up in the room, some of them disconnected and wrapped in plastic. Marlow commented to Foster.

-"If Seegson put these machines on sale, we can get one for the _Anesidora_."

West opened one of the machines and indicated Foster to lie down, the lid closed and the machine initiated its analysis. West went to the main console with the other three: Lindgard, Morley and Marlow. The screen showed patient's data.

Patient: Foster, Catherine.

Gender: Female.

Age: 39.

Blood pressure: 130/78

Temperature: 35.8°C

HR: 84 bpm… 180 bpm… Error… 86 bpm.

Initiating X-ray scan,

Warning: Pregnant woman please stand back…

A green light ran the body from top to bottom and backwards.

Initiating MRI scan…

Anomalous tissue located in abdominal/chest cavity.

Two heart rates detected.

-"What the Hell?" Marlow exclaimed.

-"How's that possible? It's your wife suffering from cancer or is pregnant?" Lindgard asked.

-"I don't think is cancer" West told her. "Genetic test doesn't match with human DNA"

-"Show me the scans. Marlow, there's something you didn't told me?" Lingard questioned Marlow, he looked nervous.

-"I… I…" Marlow couldn't speak. "I told you, it was a decompression accident."

-"Oh my God" The radiologist exclaimed.

The screen showed an X-ray image of Foster's skeleton superimposed with a false color magnetic resonance image. Organs were visible but the most terrifying thing was some kind of snake or worm placed inside the woman esophagus, between the lungs and front of the heart. It was coiled inside some kind of placenta, blood vessels or something similar drew blood or other nutrients to the parasite. Lindgard felt nauseous just from seeing the little abomination.

-"Where did that came from, Marlow? Don't lie to me." Lindgard asked, visibly terrified.

-"Decompression was caused by an organism who attached itself to Catherine's face. It died later, before I put my wife in cryo coming here" Marlow said, he was scared as well.

-"We need to extract it. Morley, take the patient to surgery. Remove all the non-essential personnel there. You and I will operate. West, this is confidential, don't discuss this with anyone." Lindgard told the pale looking man.

While Marlow accompanied Morley taking Foster to examination prior to surgery, Lindgard came to a Sevastolink terminal and wrote a message to Marshal Waits.

"Waits, it's Dr. Lingard. I've just examined a patient with — well, I've never seen anything like it. It's some kind of unknown parasite. I did a quick check on the name they gave me and there's no one registered under it at Sevastopol. I think she came on board recently. Do you know anything about this? I have no idea what Sinclair and his men were doing, but this should have been picked up during quarantine. Who knows what else they've let through? The patient and her captain are waiting for me in the examination room. Get down here, now."

With the room cleared, no one noticed a new message on the autodoc screen

APOLLO to Executive Ransome.

Data from Autodoc Reg#0472.

Transmitting file...

And a few minutes later.

Executive Ransome to APOLLO.

Keep an eye on Lindgard.

Report me anything.

\- o -

On the Corporate penthouses, Senior Executive Ben Ransome read the files from the scan. The finding of new specimens always had a potential for new materials, alloys, medication or other non-civilian applications. He wanted to know everything Lindgard learn from the parasite and then exploit any useful find. If he can't convince Lindgard, then he had to steal some of the biological material. Knowing W-Y representatives would came for the Flight recorder, would be an excellent opportunity to sell the files to a bigger bidder and his ticket into the major leagues.

APOLLO transmitted him the message sent by Lindgard to Waits. The last thing Ransome wanted was the marshal shunts him out. He needs to be there. A Working Joe attendant android came inside the room, bringing some snacks.

-"Keep that for later, please. I had a more important issue to attend." Ransome told the android.

-"As your wish." The Joe responded and put the tray in a refrigerator unit inside the suite's modular kitchen.

Ransome took the elevator towards the Towerlink transit station. When he boarded it, he recorded a message to Karen Lindgard.

"Dr. Lingard, this is Ransome. Remember me? Your friendly chief executive? Lingard, you don't drop by, you don't call. Aren't we pals anymore? Oh well, we're both busy people... And after all, I have lots of other friends. Some of them have badges. One of them told me you called Marshal Waits about a... shall we say... interesting find? I want in. No arguments. After all, how much does Waits really know about you? Not as much as your old friend here. And I bet he wouldn't be as understanding about black market med supplies. I look forward to your call, doc."

The transit car left the Solomons Hab Tower and he headed for the hospital.

\- o -

Ransome entered the examination room, Lindgard, Morley, West and Marlow were there and Foster lied on the table with an IV on her arm. It took almost a day to get a surgery suite ready, most of the personnel leave their shift and they're alone now. Lindgard sent a furious look at him; Marshall Waits would certainly question what he was doing there.

They're waiting until anesthesia took effect. The instrumental was ready and sterilized. An EKG monitor showed Fosters' status.

Patient: Foster, Catherine.

Gender: Female.

Age: 39.

D/O/B: 01/20/2098

Blood pressure: 121/79

Temperature: 36.1°C

HR: 86 bpm… 88 bpm… 120 bpm… 140 bpm.

EKG: _/\\_/\\_/\\_/\\_/\\_/\\_

An alarm sounded.

-"What's happening?" Morley asked.

-"Heart rate increasing" Lindgard answered. "Cardiac arrest!" She exclaimed.

EKG: _/\\_/\\_/\\_/\/\\_/\/\\_/\\_/\/\\_

Foster began to convulse, West and Morley tried to hold her. She was shaking her legs. "It hurts" she screamed. Lindgard ran to the defibrillator, ready for RCP given the case. Foster's constant screaming was cut off when she spat blood. Morley and West backed as a second blood gush erupted from Catherine's chest. Ransome was muted, eyes wide opened. Lindgard realized what was happening, and said.

-"Christ! It's coming out!"

Foster screamed a second time, this time her cry was accompanied by a tearing sound.

-"Catherine!" Marlow exclaimed with horror.

EKG: /\/\/\\_

Foster's arms relaxed and remained still, blood pouring from chest and mouth. From the chest wound, a tiny, eyeless head emerged. A fanged mouth screamed with a blood chilling screech. They saw a serpent-like, orange-pink body with a long tail and tiny appendices, covered in blood. The little horror turned its head around and when it was facing Marlow, it hissed and jumped, Marlow screamed and fell backwards. The monster disappeared inside one of the ventilation shafts behind Marlow leaving a trail of Foster's blood.

Everyone was frozen in horror. Marlow, still trembling, cursed, Catherine was dead and it was all his fault, first by trying to find the _Nostromo_ , then by following the signal, all for having wanted a bigger profit, and then for not checking the data even if was illegal, maybe that creature caused the _Nostromo_ disappeared, they could've been warned. Now seeing the consequences, he was devastated by and at the same time relieved that volcanic eruption destroyed the nest. " _Or not_ " doubt emerged, " _Even If I disabled the signal and the derelict was destroyed by the eruption, I'm not completely sure, I have to check the flight recorder data, see if there's something about this creature, know what it is because I'm gonna kill it and I need to know how to do it._ " He rose, wiped out the tears and then he ran.

Karen Lindgard was looking the woman's body on the examination table; the gruesome scene had shattered her nerves. Most of all, she wanted Marshall Waits arrive soon, she couldn't write the autopsy until forensics examined the body; also, there's the question of capture or kill the creature, crawling who knows where.

When Will Waits arrived, the first thing he saw was the blood, a trail starting in a well-known woman towards one of the vents. Then, he saw Seegson chief executive Ben Ransome vomiting in a corner, pale as a ghost, Morley was holding the man and passing him a water bottle.

-"What, in the name of God happened here?" He questioned.

-"We have a situation, marshal. Some kind of parasite erupted from this woman. Her husband, Mr. Marlow… Hey, where's Marlow?" Lindgard was surprised not to see woman's husband in the room. In the confusion, nobody saw him leave.

-"Ransome, what are you doing here?" Waits turned to the senior executive.

-"As a senior executive and administrator I have the right to be present and/or take part in every new discovery made on this installation, including Gemini Exoplanet Solutions lab and this medical facility." Ransome explained, wiping out his mouth with a paper towel.

-"Bullshit; from now, nobody touch anything, this is a crime scene. We need to tape it." Waits ordered. He wasn't happy. "I'll call in forensics, meanwhile Dr. Lindgard, tell me exactly everything had happened here."

Once Karen explained him, Waits left the room and called Officer Dale Turner.

"Turner, we've had something go down here in San Cristobal. Tape off the scene and make sure it's not touched until Garcia comes in with forensics. Keep this quiet for now. I want total silence. Last thing this station needs is a panic. And one other thing — if I find out who leaked this to Ransome, I'll make them eat their fucking badge. He turned up, quoted Seegson privileges, and had a ringside seat for the whole God damn mess. This is a serious incident. I don't need Ransome making it more complicated. Waits out."

\- o -


	7. Chapter 6: Evilution

" _There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars..._ "

Charles Darwin, _letter to the 19th century American botanist Asa Gray_.

 **November 13th, 2137, Earth Central Time,** ** _San Cristoba_** **l Medical Facility's examination room,** ** _Sevastopol_** **Station, KG-348.**

Officer Garcia and the forensics team arrived early that day, that's because they need to gather all the equipment conveniently stored and prepared for decommissioning, then, going from one tower to another. Turner already had taped the scene and he and Harris were diverting any patient out. After they interrogated witnesses and took photo record. Foster's body remained on the table, orange cones and cards on the floor marking the evidence.

-"Can we perform an autopsy now?" Lindgard told Waits, and then turned to Frank Whitechappel, the coroner. "You and me"

-"All clear, Ma'am, but I need more information about the creature in order to capture it." Waits responded.

-"It was about two feet long, serpent like body, no eyes. Fast, very fast. Consider it dangerous. Disappeared inside ventilation ducts" Lingard described the creature to the marshal.

-"Initiate aero-transmitted diseases containment procedure, that will seal all air shafts and prevent the creature from escape the hospital." Waits ordered and then added "If it still here, we had lost a lot of time already."

-"APOLLO, Lockdown all air shafts in San Cristobal Medical Facility. Authorization by: Lindgard, Karen. Serial number: 6743." Lindgard ordered the main computer.

 _Authorization code accepted_.

 _Sealing air shafts…_

-"And maybe you could tell your medical staff set up a temporary medical center outside." Waits suggested "Until this situation are under control."

-"Yes, Marshal"

She and Frank prepared the body for the autopsy. Ransome followed them; Waits said nothing and started to give orders to his men.

-"Turner, I want you to bring me Marlow, it's the Captain of the _Anesidora_ , or anyone of his crew. I think one of them went to SysTech spire to send a message. The others are somewhere in the Spaceflight terminal. Find them, I need answers. Also, you can interrogate Sinclair and find why the hell Marlow and his wife were here instead on quarantine."

-"Right away, Marshal." Turner acknowledged.

\- o -

The autopsy finished and Lindgard analyzed some leftover tissue from the placenta, plus some of the slime the creature left along with the blood trail. She wasn't a xeno-biologist but that creature was nothing like anything found on more than 800 surveyed world and moons.

Out there were vicious organisms of course, extremophiles product of evolution in harsh environments. There were also Earth organisms carried by colonization ships and adapted to new planets. The insects, for example, evolved at a higher rate due to their short lifespans and reproduction cycles. There have been reports of parasites ranging from worms, bacteria and lice, even new varieties of _Ichneumonidae_ , the parasitoid wasp in the jungles of Helene, in the 82 Eridani system, but nothing like this.

She hoped Waits soon captured the creature, which was nowhere to be seen, even APOLLO sensors hadn't detected it on the last 24 hours. The officer who entered the air ducts equipped with a motion sensor had lost the trail near the hospital sewers and reported he's coming back. Now, she had to upload her report on Sevastolink.

\- o -

Deputy Ricardo Cyrus Campbell crouched inside the air ducts, holding an Arious motion tracker in one hand and a stunt baton in the other. The motion tracker was basically a portable density meter which used a combination of microwave, ultrasound and Coriolis mass flow effect. The device interpreted distance and direction of the movement and display it on a monochromatic CRT screen, similar to an air controller radar screen.

Almost every technician aboard _Sevastopol_ had one and used it mainly to detect rats inside the ducts. As in the old seaborne vessels, rats have rapidly adapted to space, stowing away inside ships, and sometimes gnawing critical systems.

He was following the blood trail left by the creature; also, sweeping around the motion tracker on every junction. The baton was in case the bastard attacked him. Ricardo hoped it could stunt it enough to put the thing in the bag hanging from his belt.

Ahead, he noticed something in duct's floor, the thing looked like a plastic bag at distance, but close examination showed something organic material. " _A dead rat?_ " though Ricardo. The blood trail ended there.

-"The heck is that?" said to himself. The thing was translucent; it had a serpentine shape. Shredded skin "Waits, I lost the track, but I found something interesting, maybe the Doctor want to examine it" Ricardo reported on radio, took the skin and put it in the bag. "I'm coming back."

-"Roger that. Dr. Lindgard has initiated airborne containment. The air shafts leaving the hospital are sealed. It's not going anywhere." Waits responded.

Once Ricardo got out the ventilation ducts, he passed the bag to Lindgard. She put the creature's skin on an examination table.

-"The creature is growing and is doing it fast. Waits, you need to capture it, we don't know how much it's gonna grow." Lindgard told them.

-"We'll keep patrolling the hospital; you'll going to the temporary medical clinic outside." Waits ordered to Lindgard and then turned to Ransome "Ransome, this is a crime scene; I want you out, no questions."

-"I need to tell Frank to secure the morgue, preserve the body. Also he can help me with the tissue Deputy Ricardo found." Lindgard explained.

-"Do it." Waits approved.

-"I… I'll be on mi Penthouse." Ransome said, and then he left the room while Lindgard was writing a message to coroner Frank. Once he was back at his penthouse, he addressed the attendant Working Joe.

-"How can I help you?" the robot asked.

-"Call Seegson executive Robert Barker," He ordered.

-" _Your call is being attended_ " the Joe answered with its metallic, monotone voice.

Days ago, Ransome had protected Barker from that issue, the bastard harassed Nurse O'Sullivan and Ransome had to pull some strings inside the Marshall Bureau to drop the charges.

-"Barker, it is Ransome. Remember that little favor I did to you? It's time to re-pay… Listen, I need a shuttle but I don't want too much attention, no questions. Need you borrow me your yatch."

-"It's on the Penthouse's marina, take it." Barker responded, and when the call ended, he added "asshole."

Accompanied by two working Joes, Ransome headed for the marina, there they opened the hatch and entered Barker's Trexton Citation 5600 intersystem shuttle, basically the 22nd Century equivalent to a private yatch or business plane.

The shuttle lacked FTL capacity but Barker kept the small luxury ship handy for "closer encounters." Ransome knows the executive liked private parties especially with young, pretty women, and for that reason his yatch was equipped with a well provided bar and a foldable bed. The yatch's nose art and name " _Passion wagon_ " described very well its purpose.

The shuttle approached to the _Anesidora_ , parked in orbit around KG-348, and Ransome saw the ship's deteriorated state.

-"Is that a salvage vessel? It looks like the junk it supposes to salvage" Commented.

The tiny vessel docked with the salvage ship and the chief executive and the Working Joes entered through the airlock. They headed for the medical bay, boxes and equipment filled the hallways. Indeed the ship was in bad shape. On medical, Ransome found an ugly creature inside a formaldehyde duro-plastic tube. The horrendous creature looked like the impossible offspring between a spider and a scorpion. He ordered one Joe to take it. They boarded _Passion Wagon_ and came back to the station's penthouses.

\- o -

When it was born, a day ago, the very first thing it felt was Fear. It followed the most basic survival instinct and fled. It was vulnerable during first hours after birth but once it grows, Fear will disappear.

It had no eyes, but in the darkness, it didn't need them. Along its elongated head, it had a series of low resistivity gel filled pores each one possessing nerve terminals, like the shark's Lorenzini ampules, which detected electromagnetic fields. Also inside the cranium had a hollowed cavity, acting as a resonance chamber which amplified sounds its brain interpreted in three-dimensional, spatial data.

Once it became aware of its surroundings, a new feeling arise, Hunger. It needed nourishment and a warm place to grow. It detected vibrations inside the tunnel and followed them. There were little animals crawling ahead, it followed the sound, when it was near the source it saw them, its brain interpreted new data from olfactory nostrils, tiny lids above the mouth housed a high sensitive vomeronasal organ, capable of detecting traces of pheromones.

Superimposed to its spatial sonic interpretation, a colored cloud appeared over each of the signatures. It stalked and ate them. Hunger satisfied, the creature's fast metabolism caused its body to grow. It shredded its outer skin layer and continued deeper into the air duct; the blood trail left by the creature disappeared as the new skin was clean.

After wandering further inside the tunnels, it felt a new vibration which its brain interpreted as sound waves.

-" _Authorization code accepted. Sealing air shafts…_ " followed by a tremor inside the tunnel.

It was trapped, iris-like openings had closed ahead and behind. It screeched and threw itself against the walls. Like a caged animal it started to chew some cables, and then it received an electric shock, causing a series of sparks. The charge pierced its thin skin splattering blood. The splash hissed and the floor metal corroded, making a hole in the duct. When the hole was large enough, the creature escaped to the room below.

The room was filled with machinery; thumping sounds resonated all over the place. The room was warm and the creature nostrils detected some traces of organic compounds hissing from pipes. Those compounds were similar to the chamber where its eggs incubated.

The tiny creature made a cocoon and placed itself inside. Soon its metamorphosis started.

\- o -

Marlow left the transit car at the Lorenz Systech tower and quickly, he uploaded a map in his hacking device. These maps could be consulted in place or uploaded in a portable device, either the motion tracker or the access tuner, to be consulted later. If someone uploaded all map areas he or she could have the complete map for _Sevastopol_ , but some areas required a high level access card.

He was looking for the Flight recorder; he remembered it was taken to the archive with someone named Tanaka. He consulted the map and fortunately, the archives were near, so Marlow headed there, avoiding any contact with personnel and Working Joes in the area. He hoped no one had read the device.

The flight recorder was inside a circular room filled with computers, there wasn't anyone near. He pushed the buttons and read the data.

FLIGHT PATH.

CREW MANIFEST.

VIDEO RECORDINGS

AUDIO BRIDGE RECORDINGS.

REACTOR STATUS.

CREW MESSAGES.

-"Interesting, Science officer was reassigned before departure. According to MUTHUR, the ship deviated from course by company orders. Video CCTV was non-functional on decks B and C. Then Warrant Officer Ripley, Ellen set the coolant system off and the ship exploded. Post explosion messages…" Marlow read aloud. "Let's see what officer Ripley had to say" He typed play.

After he heard the last report of Ellen Ripley, Marlow uploaded the last, personal recording addressed to her daughter in the hacking device. Someday, when this situation was solved for good, He will give Amy the recording, so she can understand why her mother is still missing. Now, there was one last thing to do.

DELETE ALL DATA Y/N

WARNING: DELETING INFORMATION IN A FLIGHT RECORDER IS PUNISHED BY LAW, RANGING FROM LEGAL ACTION TO INCARCERATION.

Y

DELETING ALL DATA… 10%... 43%... 75%... 100%

FILES CORRUPTED.

Marlow came out of the archive back to the Systech Lobby looking for a terminal where he can send a message to Lewis, Heyst and Meeks about what's happened, after all Catherine and he were almost family to them, and then together they'll hunt and kill that creature, in Foster's honor.

Marlow found a terminal and wrote a message first to Lewis in another part of the tower.

-"Lewis, I don't know how to tell you this but… Catherine is dead. That creature from the ship, it must have planted something inside her, some kind of parasite. We didn't know and erupted from her chest, killing her. Now the thing is loose inside this station and we must kill it. I think the creature is related to _Nostromo_ 's disappearance. Meet me at the Systech transit station."

He sent the message and when he was about to leave he heard a voice behind him.

-"Freeze!" the voice ordered. Marlow turned around and saw Officer Turner drawing a revolver at him "Lie down, Hands in your head"

-"I hadn't done anything" Marlow said, raising his arms, palms open.

-"Henry Marlow, you're under arrest for violation of quarantine and possession of corporate private property" Turner told him.

-"I found that, it's my salvage" Marlow protested.

-"Not anymore, you lost it the moment you broke the rules. Now, move!"

Turner pulled out a pair of handcuffs, locked them on the man's wrists and escorted Marlow towards the Marshalls Bureau. There, he put him in a cell.

\- o -

 **November 13th, 2137. Earth Central Time. Porrima colony, Gamma Virginis.**

Assistant attorney Nina Taylor passed in a hurry through the doors of Weyland-Yutani legal department. The company had a legal department on each one of the colonies, especially in Prospecting colonies, because wildcatters, colonists dedicated to find mineral resources, need all paper work done before they received their wages and royalties.

The reason Taylor was excited was her boss had finally assigned her a case. The young woman had been an intern for the legal department of Weyland-Yutani for more than a year and finally they promoted her to assistant attorney, but what Nina didn't know was Assistant was a pretty name for the girl who served coffee. Now she was excited because finally she will do some real legal job.

-"Hey, watch out!" A man's voice greeted her, as Nina almost tripped with him. The man was pushing a drawer. "Ah Nina, I'm sorry, I think you were someone else. What's the rush for?"

-"Saul, you're not going to believe this. They finally gave me a case." An excited Nina responded.

-"Really? And that's the reason you almost knocked off the main doors and hit me?" The man asked as he checked the drawer.

-"Sorry, but I have waited this for a long time." Nina excused herself.

-"Hell if not, well, if there's anything I can help you, just call me." Saul said waving his hand and resume his job pushing the drawer towards the archive.

Saul had entered the company almost at the same time as Nina, to the Archives, and was stuck there since that. Nina liked the man, but she knew he was too kind to ascend in the corporate ladder. She reached Al Rupert's office, her boss, and registered, she waited until the secretary announced her and let her pass.

-"Good afternoon, Miss Taylor. Please take a seat." The fifty years old man told her, pointing to a chair.

-"Thank you, Mr. Rupert. I'm a little intrigued, this is my first real case and I want to know what is about." Nina sat and reclined front, putting her elbows on the desk.

-"Take a breath, miss Taylor. First I want to introduce you José Conrado, our Science Division director here on Porrima." He pointed the other man in the room, Taylor hadn't seen him.

-"Oh, sorry. Nice to meet you, Mr. Conrado." She said, extending her hand.

-"The pleasure is mine, Miss Taylor." He said. "Now, to the point. We had received a message from _Sevastopol_ station. They have recovered a flight recorder from one of our ships, the _Nostromo_. The data in the recorder is the vital importance for the Science Division, and we need you, as a legal representative of W-Y go there and bring it here. I authorize you to take the necessary measures, legal and financial." Conrado passed Nina a file folder with the information about, she started to read.

-"This is an old case, and a very easy one, Sr. When do I leave?"

-"As soon as possible. We had contracted a courier ship, the _Torrens_ , I think it will be ready to depart in one day or two." Rupert told her.

-"I'll made the proper arrangements and I'll send a message to _Sevastopol_ confirming the recovery."

-"Good luck." That was all Al Rupert said, the other man, Conrado, remained silent, he had already said everything he had to say.

Nina left the office and headed for the communications center, before anything else she wanted to send a message confirming the transmission, with a warning about the legal consequences of taping in the data contained inside the flight recorder. Taylor used one of the center's terminals, which in turn sent all messages to its destination via the complex main antenna.

" _Sevastopol_ , this is Weyland-Yutani executive administrator Nina Taylor. We confirmed receipt of your transmission. I'm one of the team assigned to collect the _Nostromo_ flight recorder. The black box you have in your possession is of primary importance to Weyland-Yutani, and under existing corporate agreements we should remind you that you must neither attempt to read its contents, nor disclose its presence to any interested parties. We will be with you soon. A private message for Marshal Waits will follow."

Then, she added the message directed to Marshal Waits.

"This is a private transmission for Marshal Waits from Nina Taylor at Weyland-Yutani. The _Nostromo_ black box is of primary importance to the company. I am therefore authorized to offer you financial incentives to guarantee a smooth, safe retrieval. However, if the data held on the device is compromised or shared, in any way, legal ramifications will be severe. Please respond. Taylor out."

Back at her office, Nina sent a message to Saul in the archives, asking for the _Nostromo_ archive files. Less than a day later, she received the answer.

To N. Taylor

RE: Nostromo incident, Weyland-Yutani file #DS9398476

Hey, Taylor, I got your case request. It may take me a while to dig out the files and the incident happened before my time at the company, so I'm a bit fuzzy on the details.

In 2122, the Weyland-Yutani cargo vessel the USCSS _Nostromo_ went missing. No trace was found of its cargo or crew. Apart from a new science officer, the rest of the crew had worked together before, seven in all:

Dallas — Captain

Ash — Science Officer

Kane (or is it Cain?) — Executive Officer.

Ripley — Warrant Officer

Lambert — Navigation Officer

Parker — Chief Engineer

Brett — Engineer Technician

Weyland-Yutani lost a lot of money from it, it's a bit of a black mark in the history. Get the impression they don't like to mention it. Anyway, I'll try to find the files later, clarify some of the points. If you want I can help you go through them? Maybe some of your luck will rub off on me, I hear upstairs have an eye on you for something big. Saul.

Nina smiled, " _the guy never quits_ " she thought, " _Oh right, I think he deserves a dinner at least._ " she inserted Saul's card in the videolink.

-"Hey, Nina. It seems those files are very popular now." The man told her before Nina could even say hello.

-"What do you mean with popular?" She questioned.

-"After I sent you the message a man came looking for the same files. Well, not a man technically, you know" he explained.

-"A synthetic?" she asked.

-"And a very charming one. He called himself Samuels, Christopher Samuels, do you believe it, He? Had a surname?"

-"Well, according to the law, an android can achieve some liberties, as a fully sentient AIs, they gained _ersatz_ citizenship. They're not humans but they aren't treated as property anymore. Many people had accepted this so far-"

-"I got it, don't be intense. Well, this guy came wanted the files and I told him he need to talk to you."

-"Thank you, I'm leaving in two days, an easy job. When I return, I'll invite you to dinner."

-"Deal, _do svidaniya_ "

-"I told you, I'm as Russian as much as you're Hebrew, _Le-itra-ot_ " She protested, that was a common joke between them about their name's origins. She pulled the card and the call ended.

\- o -

Later that day, Nina heard the door knocking, when she opened, she saw a tall, white man approximately in his late thirties stood outside. He had a serious expression, too serious, Nina thought. But judging by what Saul had told her earlier and by the imperfect but by the same time attractive face, Nina knew this was the synthetic who was looking for the _Nostromo_ file.

-"Nina Taylor?" He asked.

-"Yes, What can I do for you…?" she asked back.

-"My name is Christopher Samuels, or Samuels for short. I understand you're the one assigned to recover the flight recorder from the Nostromo. I want to ask you I want to be part of your team."

-"This is my first assignment. I thought a full team is not necessary. What's your interest in all this, if you don't mind telling me?" Nina was wondering what was Samuels' interest in the flight recorder.

-"I am assigned to the psychology department by the ICC, as you know, long haul crews pass a very long time away from their families, some of them had trouble with adapting to temporal abandonment, so my job is to help provide comfort and acceptance." He explained.

-"I know what it is, my own father missed some of my birthdays." She said. Her father was Exec officer in a long range shuttle.

-"Well, I came across a very special case. Her name is Amanda Ripley, her mother was the _Nostromo_ 's Warrant officer and disappeared when she was eleven. She hadn't fully accepted yet she's gone, maybe showing her the data in the flight recorder she finally could get closure." Samuels seemed very into his assignment, taking care of the people who had suffered losses.

-"You know showing that data to an outsider will get me a lot of trouble, and you too."

-"Not if we are part of the team, technically we'll have the legal support and we wouldn't have to discuss it with third parties as the confidentiality agreement dictates. Plus, you're gonna need some engineer in your team in case you need technical assistance. I can assure you Amanda Ripley is a very competent one."

-"You know, for a synth programmed in psychology, you have the talent to be a lawyer." Nina agreed. "Okey, you're part of the team… if you convinced my boss."

-"I already have, but it was your opinion that really interested me." Samuels headed for the door. "I'll tell Amanda Ripley."

Nina couldn't avoid to feel sympathy for the android, he was programmed to be nice and polite, but there was something else. Programmed or not, he really seemed worried about the people in his care.

\- o -


	8. Chapter 7: Grendel

" _A once-great house has fallen into the grips of an abiding curse. It is haunted by a gigantic night-stalker, who emerges after dark to feast on human flesh and drag the corpses back to a lair somewhere within a foggy bog. The creature itself is never fully seen or comprehended, momentarily glimpsed only at distance in the mists beneath the moon or up close where its massive teeth, capable of biting through bone and joints, and its long claws capable of rending flesh, are briefly glimpsed in its frenzied rush on the hall._ "

Nickolas Haydock. In _Beowulf on Films_.

 **November 14th, 2137. Earth Central Time.** ** _San Cristobal_** **Medical Facility,** ** _Sevastopol_** **station, KG-348.**

Autopsy Report

Examiner: Lindgard, Karen Date: November 14th, 2137 Coroner's case# 11/14/2137

Name: Foster, Catherine

D/O/B: 01/20/2098 Age: 39\. Sex: Female.

Origin: Crew member of the _Anesidora_.

Body identified by: Marlow, Henry – _Anesidora_ captain

Case # 001794-26B-2137 Investigative agency: _Sevastopol_ Colonial Marshal Authority.

Evidence of Treatment:

The patient was reported to had a decompression accident, caused when an object, later identified as an unknown xenomorphic organism, shattered her suit's visor. Crewmembers patched the hole and stabilized suit's pressure. The patient didn't show evidence of bleeding product of decompression. Also she lacked usual petechia associated with asphyxia. The parasite died sometime later. Its remains are presumably aboard the Anesidora and its examination is pending.

External examination:

Prior to the decease, a test battery was made including X-Rays, MRI, EKG, etc. (Attached file: #0472-03-111137), the scans detected an unknown life form inside the thoracic cavity. Procedures for extraction were initiated when the creature (Classification unknown) erupted.

Post-mortem external examination of the body revealed the cause of death is a massive perforation of the thorax caused by the emergence of the creature. Wound's edges are torn, caused by the creature's fangs. Ocular witness described them as piranha-like teeth.

Internal Examination:

Examination of thorax revealed the creature cut through the victim's esophagus, sternum and bent the ribcage outside. Victim's heart shown a perforation in right ventricle caused by the creature's tail in its attempts to escape the victim's body. The placenta-like organ in which the creature was contained remained inside.

Further examination showed tiny pre-mortem lacerations on the esophagus' walls. Traces of foreign tissue embedded in those lacerations, indicate the original parasite introduced (or forced) something down (parasitoid embryo?).

Evidence collected:

Samples of foreign tissue traces and the placenta collected and sent to laboratory.

Blood sample from the victim for analysis.

Slime from the blood trail left by the creature.

A shredded skin left by the creature inside the air duct.

Laboratory data:

Foreign tissue found in esophagus walls are protein polysaccharides covered skin cells, similar to the chitin of insects, albeit different. The original parasite skin must be though, given it was found in a non-earthlike atmosphere.

The placenta had a thin layer of the same compounds found in the traces. Its function was to keep the embryo until it was ready. Its "blood vessels" connected with the host's blood vessels, presumably drawing organic material for the fetus to grow. Traces of silicon and chlorofluorocarbons of unknown function are found.

The slime was interesting; it contained an enzyme of unknown function, after a few minutes the exposed slime hardened. Traces of inorganic material contained in the slime shown a composition not found in nature.

Blood samples analysis reveals no traces of fungi, bacterial, viral or prion infection.

Opinion:

Although the parasitoid creature it's not a carrier of fungi, bacterial, viral or prion infection, it must be considered dangerous. It caused the death of one person at birth, and the fact is it has passed from one stage to another and increased in size in a few hours, we don't know if it is the final stage or how much it's going to grow. The creature needs to be contained for further study.

We don't have enough data. Recovery of the original parasite from the Anesidora is recommended.

\- o -

Loneliness, Fear had gone, and now the fully developed creature only felt loneliness. As member of a gregarious species, part of a complex group mind which shared thoughts and memories, it needed others. Without others the creature became an instinctive, feral, aggressive creature. Its only goal now was to find another members of its species, but, as there was none here, it has to reproduce.

The room was perfect, warm, secluded; few entrances and it had access to the tunnels. And now it had grown, its senses have amplified. It can hear multiple signals 360°, and track pheromones trails left by any organism. It can crawl through the walls and ceiling if needed. Its long, segmented tail was armed with a sharp, scorpion stinger-like barb capable of puncture trough metal. It was time to hunt.

Concierge Gyakusa Hajime came out of the elevator and stepped into the darkness. He was in the Hospital's sewer pumping station. All the hospital drainage must be pumped to _Sevastopol_ water treatment plant in the bowels of the station through a series of large pipes. Usually there was a Working Joe assigned to check the pumps, but the decommissioning has the android relocated and Hajime must do the job himself.

-"Something smells bad here" He said, "I hope there's no methane leaking from the pipes."

He recognized the smell of decomposition, it was common in places like this, but a leak could cause an explosion if a short circuit ignited the gas. He continued sweeping the flashlight sideways looking for fumes, and then he stepped in something wet.

-"What's this?" He touched the jelly-like liquid, it was warm. He felt his fingers itch "What the hell?"

He wiped his hand in the clothes. He kept searching and in a corner, he found some kind of organic material, to Hajime it seemed like a monstrous butterfly's cocoon, but what kind of bug did that thing. Suddenly, he realized he hasn't heard any rat since he entered; usually the rat's squeals were a background noise, but there's nothing, not a single sound. Drops of the jelly-like substance fell in Hajime's shoulder.

The creature was hanging from the ceiling, it had detected the man's pheromones and now it can "see" him. When the man was below, the creature let itself drop right behind the man.

Hajime sensed a presence behind and turned around. He hadn't chance for anything. The large, eight feet tall, greenish black, eyeless monster hissed and grabbed the poor man with long clawed hands by the head. It put man's head front of its mouth, and a second teethed jaw came out from it, piercing the skull.

-"Aaaaaaaaaggggggggh!" the scream was cut short.

The creature grabbed the lifeless body and raised it against the wall. From its mouth, it covered the body with the same jelly-like resin. The resin was not only an acidic enzyme but also in contact with the air became powerful glue, its purpose was to degrade any organic tissue and then, nanoparticles inside transform it into nucleic acids that would start a new zygote or egg. Once the egg was ready, a new host could be placed for implantation of a new creature.

Once the body was glued and the mutation process started, the alien started the search of its next victim.

\- o -

Officers Ross and Laroque were patrolling the hospital; Ross had the motion tracker and Laroque held an electric riot baton. Waits had ordered the medic staff to evacuate the ward, only intensive care unit patients stay there because they can't be moved. Doctor Morley refused to leave and was in his office in room A-029.

The plan was to patrol Hospital hallways one by one, level by level until they detect the creature moving inside the air conduits, then Laroque will enter and stun it with the baton and capture it.

The motion tracker beeped, indicating it picked up something. _Beep… beep… beep…_ the device's display located it somewhere 27 meters in the air duct ahead. They proceeded to the next room and closed the door, the signal was gone, and the little creature must have heard them and stopped moving. At the other side of the room was a ventilation grate in the ceiling.

-"It's over there" said Ross quietly, pointing the grate.

-"I'll catch it." Laroque told him. "Keep watching."

Laroque moved silently towards the grate, he lifted it using the baton, jumped and hanged himself and peered inside. Ross checked the device, maybe it was malfunctioning. Suddenly, the beeps returned and he heard a scream, Laroque's legs hanged and kicked frantically from the grate, and then was pulled inside the air duct. Ross ran, the point in the screen was moving away fast and soon it was out of reach.

-"Jesus! Laroque?, Laroque?" Called Ross through radio, he received only static.

Ross peered inside the duct but he couldn't see Laroque anywhere. An object shone ahead in the duct, the baton, covered in a jelly-like substance.

-"Waits, it is Ross. Laroque's gone. Something pulled him inside the ducts. Come quickly!" Ross called the marshal on radio. He was scared.

Marshal Waits and the team arrived minutes later. They searched inside the air conduit but there wasn't a single clue. Laroque had vanished.

-"What happened, Ross?" Waits asked the cop.

-"I detected a signal, but disappeared from the screen. We believe the creature stopped moving and Laroque took a look. Then he screamed and disappeared like he was pulled by something." The officer answered.

-"A creature size of a cat can't drag a man, it must've grown." Waits assumed. "Game has changed."

\- o -

The creature dragged Laroque's unconscious body through the vents towards the pump room; the effects of the toxin it has injected with its tail will pass in an hour or two, enough time to transport and glue him to the wall where the egg was being developed.

Lower half of Hajime's body was unrecognizable, the enzyme was working well. Soon the egg will be finished. It encased Laroque next to the cocoon and climbed the ceiling. Few minutes later, the creature heard voices approaching from a hallway.

-"You sure Hajime came here?" one woman in overalls told the other, a bearded man in a hazardous material suit.

-"Yes, I sent him down here to check the pumps, sensor had registered rise in Methane and Ammonia traces, could be a leak." The man told her. "It has been hours."

-"Maybe he's sleeping inside some clerk storage room." The woman continued.

-"the old man is a hard worker, Wife and three kids. Not the procrastinator type." The man continued.

They opened the hatch and entered. There was a foul smell.

-"Ewk, is a dead animal here?" the woman commented, disgusted.

-"A methane leak for sure, one spark and we blow." The man pulled a mask and passed another to the woman. "Hajime, are you there?"

He held his flashlight high and saw the two corpses stuck to the upper wall. He recognized Hajime's mangled face covered by some resin; and other unknown man, a badge shone as it reflected the light.

-"Oh my…" The woman's sentence was cut short. A huge, horrible monster appeared in front of them.

The creature dropped from the ceiling and rose in front of the pair; the man and woman turned and ran for the exit. The creature knew it doesn't have let them escape or the nest location will be compromised. It hissed and shrieked, and then it chased after them.

They kept running turning left and right trying to lose the beast. A hatch sealed behind them and the monster was left behind. They didn't see it anymore and slowed pace.

-"I think we lose it." The man said.

Behind the man, from a ventilation shaft, a long, segmented tail emerged, slashed in the air, decapitating the man, splashing blood on the woman's face. The woman backed and saw the creature climb down the hallway. Quickly, she pulled herself inside a locker and closed the door.

The alien walked around hissing and growling. "It's hunting me" the woman though. After a few moments, it shrieked and climbed up the vent. The woman waited a moment before came out and then, silently she walked towards the elevator. The doors closed and she pushed UP. She was safe.

The creature searched the woman around but she must have hide, gas and vapor plus machinery noises made her difficult to track. It climbed back to the vent and waited, maybe she came out her hiding place. Few minutes later the woman walked towards the next door. Sounds indicate the creature the woman was going up so it climbed through a shaft.

At the hospital level the elevator opened and the woman came out in front of Waits and Ross, the later held a motion tracker device and Waits pointed a gun at her.

-"Jesus ma'am," Ross exclaimed when he saw the blood covered face.

-"What happened?" Waits asked.

-"A monster… It killed Hajime… Cut off McKenzie's head…" The woman stuttered.

-"Get back, lady" Waits ordered her.

The woman place herself behind the officers. The tracking device beeped, something was approaching, and Waits draw the gun.

This time, the creature surged from below, from a crawling space beneath the floor plates behind the woman, it grabbed the woman and was about to bite her when Waits fired.

The low velocity, hollow point .357 bullets impacted the creature's head, splashing its blood over the woman. The woman screamed as the acid ate her skin and bone. The creature growled but it wasn't dead. It grabbed the corpse and got back from where it came. The bullets didn't made it damage, as they penetrated the exoskeleton, the acidic blood dissolved them, Pain was temporary, but most important was to kill the woman who had seen the nest. It will deal with the others later.

It picked up the bodies and started to turn them into eggs.

\- o -

-"Son of b#$% is big, tough and bleeds some kind of acid. It cut through three decks and it was only a few drops!" Waits informed Lindgard. "I need a complete lockdown of the hospital."

-"We can seal all the exits, but we need to evacuate. Can we move the intensive care unit patients?" Lindgard answered.

-"I'll do it." Morley offered.

-"Doctor, you need to move the clinic outside medical to the mall, and set up another in the Apartment's lobby, I didn't want anyone around this area until is secure."

-"Yes, Marshal."

\- o -

 **November 15th, 2137. Earth Central Time. Courier ship** ** _Torrens_** **, in orbit above Porrima colony, Gamma Virginis.**

Diane Verlaine stood outside the main hatch of the courier ship _Torrens_ , the thirty-four years old redhead woman sang as the pressure inside the airlock matched the pressure inside the ship. When done, the hatch opened and three people came inside, Verlaine quickly examined her passengers.

The first was a black haired young woman who used glasses, she was dressed with a clean white jumpsuit with dark blue strips on her shoulders, the attire for an office, not a spacecraft. Verlaine guessed she was the company attorney. The woman looked dizzy by the trip on the shuttle, maybe she could make fun of her.

-"Welcome aboard the _Torrens_." She greeted them. "I'm Captain Diane Verlaine."

-"Nina Taylor" she was about to give Verlaine her hand but she lifted and covered her mouth instead. "Forgive me, it was long time ago I got up in a shuttle."

The second one was a tall man in an olive green coverall, his brown, short hair and shiny skin revealed him as an android. He extended his hand in a polite gesture.

-"Christopher Samuels, nice to meet you captain."

She smiled at the synthetic, Verlaine was one of the few people who don't mind treating an android as people. Then she looked at the third passenger, a young woman in her late twenties with dark brown hair tied up in a ponytail. She wore a brown coverall with some patches and carried a duffel bag which identified her as an engineer. Despite the young age, she had the angular facial expressions of a tough woman.

-"Amanda Ripley, nice to meet you." The young woman said.

-"Ripley, Samuels, welcome to the _Torrens_ " Verlaine responded.

There was a clank and a tremor as the shuttle detached from the ship and flew back to the colony. Verlaine guided the passenger trough the _Torrens_ towards the crew quarters, where they could wash and prepare for hypersleep.

-"We are at the A-deck, this is junction A, to the left is the ship's medical bay, to the right is the bunk room and the hypersleep chambers." Verlaine explained. "In front of us are the galley, and beyond the bridge."

Verlaine guided the trio to the right, in a curved corridor, then she opened a door in the right wall with the indication BUNK ROOM. There was a nice, well lit rectangular room with bed bunks embedded in the wall, at the center there was a rectangular table with screens over it. At the left there was a shower and a toilet, and right them a series of lockers, two of them labeled as VERLAINE and CONNORS.

-"Make yourself at home, we'll depart as soon as possible." Verlaine explained, and then she headed for the bridge.

\- o -

Samuels inspected the accommodations, it was comfortable, roomy, not too warmth or cold, the locker labeled CONNORS opened and pasted in the inside of the door, Samuels saw a poster of a naked woman, undoubtedly from a men magazine. " _There are things which never change_ " he thought, across the room Taylor was reclined over the toilet.

-"Are you OK, Taylor?" he asked.

-"I'm fine now" she rose, wiping her mouth with a paper towel.

-"I'm gonna take a shower, if you don't mind. I came right from work, maintenance jobs let you a little filthy." Amanda announced

She unzipped his coveralls and stripped in front of them. Samuels saw Taylor look down, embarrassed, she must have noticed because she said.

-"I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with long term trips, you know, the part getting naked in front of strangers." She excused herself.

\- o -

Diane Verlaine sat on the captain's seat at the bridge. To her right, Connors, acting as navigator and comms officer was talking with traffic control.

-"Porrima traffic control, this is commercial ship Torrens out of Saint Clair, we are ready to depart." He said trough radio.

-"Torrens, this is Porrima traffic control, you're clear, proceed to vector 2-1-0" a voice responded.

-"Take us out Connor." Verlaine ordered.

The four main engines at the end of the ship came to life, in space there was no sound but on the bridge, it was like a tremor. The sleek shape of the _Torrens_ rushed forward and, a few miles away from orbit, the ship's computer took control and followed the destination Connors had typed on the console. Verlaine relaxed and played _Space Tuckin'_ by Deep Blue in the bridge's AP.

 _We had a lot of luck on Venus_

 _We always had a ball on Mars_

 _Meeting all the groovey people_

 _We've rocked the Milky Way so far_

 _We danced around with Borealice_

 _We're space truckin' round the the stars_

 _Come on let's go Space Truckin'_

After the song ended, she rose from the seat and headed for the bridge's access door.

-"Let's get some food. I invite, Connors"

-"That's music into my ears, Captain." Connors exclaimed cheerfully.

They walked down the hallway to the galley where Samuels, Taylor and Ripley were drinking some coffee. The ship's autochef served them some snacks from the meager menu, a protein sludge shaped as a steak and mashed potatoes. Long journeys couldn't afford any perishable food inside the machine, even frozen, as the crews passed most of the time sleeping and only awaken when reached their destinations.

After the dinner, Verlaine commented.

-"Ready for the cold storage?"

-"Yeah, the best part of this job is you pass most of the time asleep." Connors said "And I have a very good dreams. A-men"

-"Judging by your kind of literature, I can imagine what kind of dreams you have" Verlaine said in sarcastic tone, then added. "And we didn't want a detailed account of those this time, Connors."

The allusion to Connors not so scarce cache of adult magazines and a reluctant Verlaine obliged to hear the nastiest dreams the officer told her made Taylor blush.

The five people then got back to the bunk room and prepared for cryo. Verlaine checked her messages on LM-Link, an internal messaging system for ships, there was one from Blaine, a fellow freelance captain.

-"Verlaine, you on the lookout for a navigational officer? I have a friend that's just lost his ship and he's looking for work. I can vouch for him, he's got good papers.

Same old story — the megacorps undercut him, picked up all his clients. Contracts are getting harder to come by for the smaller companies and I'm thinking of getting out myself while I still have something to sell. Sounds like you're doing okay though. Dropped by the docks and heard you just shipped out. _Sevastopol_ Station — what a shithole. Still, I hear Weyland-Yutani pay well. Good luck to you — if you can't beat them, right? Let's catch up when you get back. Blane."

When she get back to Porrima she'll probably hire the officer, W-Y usually paid well and she needed the navigator, Connors can't do all the job all the time.

Diane could see Taylor was still uncomfortable about getting naked in front of others. Ripley, otherwise, already have undressed and Samuels, he don't really needed. Other androids had an anatomically correct bodies but he was programmed as a psychologist assistance so the only feature really detailed was his mind and facial features, the rest of his body was covered in a spandex jumpsuit. Verlaine and Connors stripped without any ceremony, for them it was routine.

-"Did you plan to get freezer burns, miss Taylor?" she questioned the hesitant lawyer. "Those marks will let your perfect little body scarred."

-"No, I…" she started to unzip her overalls, revealing a good shaped body, as her curves suggested. "I… I am not accustomed to do this, that's all. I'm naïve because I was the typical ugly duckling at high school. Not the perfect high school American girl."

-"You see, imperfection is the key. Imperfections make us individuals, that's what makes us unique." Samuels quoted.

-"My ass, if you tell that to the prom queens, they'll bite your head off, in fact those biatches will bite your head off just for wearing something they didn't like." Verlaine exclaimed.

-"I doubt those girls understand what Asimov were trying to tell" Samuels "The quote is from an old 20th century movie based on one of Asimov's works, it refers to the fact physical differences between humans is what made us unique, but is our values what make us better human beings."

-"You're an admirer of Asimov?" Verlaine asked, impressed.

-"Shouldn't I?" Samuels responded with a smile, Verlaine smiled back.

The cryotubes were machines which could sustain human life in a state of hibernation, the five coffin-like machines were at the center of the circular chamber in a star disposition, with each individual lying facing outwards with their heads pointing to the center. Verlaine and Samuels were the last, they continued their conversation.

-"Are you sure you want to get in cryo, Samuels?" Verlaine asked.

-"Technically I don't need to, getting into cryo is part of the acceptance process by you, Humans get uncomfortable around a machine with a non-aging, physically perfect body, first androids as the David and Walter series were anatomically correct, like humanity's perfected vision of itself, bodies which last for a very long time and young, handsome features as if they were some kind of Olympian gods. Those false immortality and alleged perfection could develop a god-like status in a fully sentient A.I., it's dangerous, so the newer series as myself were created to look older, with wrinkled faces or something like that, "imperfect" you'll say, our artificial muscles degrade over time if not properly maintained so after a time we effectively cease to function, a theme treated on that movie I quoted earlier." Samuels explained.

Samuels gained Verlaine's respect for that, the android were more human than some of the corporate backstabbers, assholes and black suits she had met before. The lid closed and soon she was sleeping. Samuels entered at the final cryotube and put himself in standby mode. The lights on the chamber turned off and the ship continued its travel to Zeta1 Reticuli at faster than light.

\- o -


	9. Chapter 8: Quarantine

" _A self-replicating pathogen, whether biological or nanotechnology based, could destroy our civilization in a matter of days or weeks._ "

Ray Kurzweil, _The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology_.

 **November 15th, 2137. Earth Central Time,** ** _Josiah Siegg_** **apartments, Solomons Habitation Tower.**

Julia Jones looked through one of the large apartment's windows. The view was dominated by the orange-brown clouds of the gas giant planet KG-348, and beyond, nothing but stars.

Near the north pole of the planet, an aurora shone with a Matisse of blue, green and yellow, produced when charged particles of the solar wind crashed in the planet's strong magnetic field. A particularly large storm was visible in the south hemisphere. Lightning flashed all across the planet's upper atmosphere. Such contrast between planetary violence and the space quietness bring out Julia's philosophical side, something the black haired woman needed sometimes.

-"That's funny" Julia thought, "They've been here for almost fifteen years and they're still call it by its official designation. Nobody had given it a local name."

She was in one of the apartments inside the Solomons habitation tower, the smallest of three large skyscraper-like towers of _Sevastopol_ station, which also housed the corporate penthouses at top, the mall, the Marshall's bureau and spaceflight terminal, and the dry dock at base.

 _Sevastopol_ was the enormous station property of Seegson Corporation, one of the many companies dedicated to space colonization. Constructed in 2115 it has served as a free port and commercial hub until changes of the Thedus-Earth flight path and mismanagement had thrown the once state of the art outpost into decommissioning.

Generally, the _Josiah Siegg_ apartments were designated for Seegson Corp workers but, in the middle of the station's decommission and a skeleton crew, they could rent some one of the empty apartments to the _Colonial Times_ reporter, who came here for a report series about second tier corporations trying to maintain itself in colonization market.

About three months ago, her workaholic tendencies had thrown Julia to medical care, for sleeplessness and anxiety and her boss had sent her here, to a quiet place on the outer rim, where she can't run into trouble easily.

-"Listen Julia, I'm sending you there not because your performance dropped, I'm sending you because you're one of my best, but if you do not take a break, you will explode sooner or later, ruining your career." Tom Bradford, Julia's editor had said.

The thing was _Sevastopol_ was too quiet, people focused in their jobs and Julia was bored. Two months had passed and she still had not been able to interview Administrator Ransome, or Chief practitioner Lindgard. From Marshall Waits had not obtained too much, except his strict control over shipments arriving to the station. That, Julia suspected, was the reason the black market was flourishing.

-"Each time is harder to get a good cup of espresso." Said as she filled the cup, sipped and kept looking outside.

She hurried her coffee and left the apartment headed for the lobby. Normally, a space station the size of _Sevastopol_ was a bustling place full of people, but now was a cavernous empty place with most of its stores closed. On every hallway or junction, there were forklifts or carts full of plastic wrapped crates, containing former station equipment ready to be shipped. Rumors about decommissioning were circulating since early September, few days after she submitted her four part article " _An outpost of progress?_ " Julia cited Graham Hawkes, a late twentieth century English marine engineer to describe the lapidated state of the Station: " _Space exploration promised us alien life, lucrative planetary mining, and fabulous lunar colonies. News flash, ladies and gents: Space is nearly empty. It's a sterile vacuum, filled mostly with the junk we put up there._ "

By September 27th, Seegson gave the official announcement, about two weeks ago.

-" _Don't run. Running causes accidents_ " a metallic voice claimed.

-"Not now" Julia said and kept her hurry pace, almost throwing aside the Working Joe who was talking to her.

-" _You and I are going to have a talk about safety_ " the Joe continued.

-"As you said, _Hasta la vista_ " Julia exclaimed, imitating the robotic voice.

The Joe's were androids responsible for the station maintenance, medical care and resident attention. Its plastic mannequin appearance and short metallic-voiced phrases creep out most of the people. But they were harmless. Being governed by a central A.I. APOLLO, the computer which runs _Sevastopol_ , the Joes lacked the autonomy other more advanced, commercial android models had, like those of the discontinued David, Walter and the newer 120/A-8's manufactured by Hyperdine, a subsidiary of Weyland-Yutani.

The lobby was arranged in a curved configuration with large windows. In all windows, emergency shutters can be closed in case of decompression. A security cabin dominated the lobby, a guard yawned inside, his job was to check visitors but the place was usually deserted. The only ones there was a few people at the cafeteria. Julia sat in one of the tables and ordered a _CuppaJoe_ , Seegson's coffee brand, it was awful but without her daily coffee dose, Julia got grumpy.

She was reading an outdated _Colonial Times_ magazine she saw the dentist, Fernandez, arriving with a nurse team and some working Joe's carrying portable equipment and boxes containing medicines. They were setting up some kind of temporary clinic. She got up and approached the dentist; again her compulsive and workaholic character took control.

-"Dr. Fernandez, excuse me, I'm Julia Jones from the _Colonial Times_. Can I make you some questions?" Julia asked.

-"Miss Jones, I'm afraid I'm busy now, maybe later." The dentist answered.

-"What's happening here?" Julia insisted.

-" _You do not have an appointment._ " a Working Joe stood in front of Julia and told her with its metallic voice.

-"C'mon, you all have a grudge on me." Julia protested, referring to the android population.

-" _If my services do not meet Seegson's standards, please log a complaint._ " The Joe continued.

Julia cursed; it seemed no one on the station had manners. Or at least, no one liked reporters. If she wanted answers, she needed to do it herself.

She took the elevator to the mall, and from there she will take a transit car to the hospital. When she arrived at the mall, more of the medic staff was also setting up a clinic there. She recognized Jeffrey West and headed for him.

-"What the Hell is happening here? I've seen the dentist up in the apartments" Julia questioned the man, he doesn't looked good.

-"We had a little emergency at the hospital. Nothing to be worried" The answer didn't sound true.

-"Where's Dr. Lindgard?" the woman continued.

-"She's at the hospital with Marshal Waits. The emergency will be resolved anytime soon."

-"I'll wait for the doctor here, see you around." Julia waved off.

She walked into the Mall's bar and took a seat in the counter. There was few people there, as usual since the decommission announcement. The barman served drinks to two men in the counter.

-"Hey, barman! One drink for the lady" said one of them, and then turned to Julia "Hello. I'm Heyst, Acke Heyst."

-"Julia Jones, I usually don't accept drinks from strangers but this is one of those days I don't care." Julia told him, and then she asked the bartender " _Un tequila, por favor_."

-"Julia Jones? Ha ha ha, that name sounds falser than a three dollar bill." Heyst mocked.

-"It's an alliterative stage name, my boss thought my real name wasn't enough appealing to the media, so he suggested me I had one: Julia Jones, sounds like a superhero, isn't?" Julia explained.

-"And what's your real name?" Heyst asked.

"First, did you know what's happening at the hospital and why they're setting clinics all over the habitation tower?"

-"What problems at the hospital?" Heyst was surprised.

-"Marlow and Cat…" Meeks was about to said, but Heyst hit him under the table.

-"Apparently, something happened and Waits want everyone out there while he solve the situation." Julia told them as she drained her drink. "Thank you boys, nice to meet you, see you later." She got up and left the place.

Why was the Marshal solving a problem at the hospital? If there is some kind of medical emergency, that's an issue for Dr. Lindgard and staff, not the police. Unless, some crackpot finally snapped after years of Isolation in space and took some of the medical staff hostages or something worse. She sat before a Sevastolink terminal and recorded a message for Lindgard.

-"Dr. Lingard, my name is Julia Jones and I'm a writer covering _Sevastopol_ 's decommissioning. I was hoping to interview you about your experiences on the station... You know, the limited medical resources, the mental effects on patients in deep space, that kind of thing? But look, doctor, I've heard there was some kind of incident in the hospital recently. No one seems to know anything. Doctor, if there's a major public health issue here on _Sevastopol_ , people need to know. I'm freelance, unbiased. I don't have any corporate affiliations. I'll take any statement you'd care to give me. Call me."

\- o -

Heyst and Meeks paid their drinks and left the bar. Meeks waited until there was no one near.

-"Marlow and Catherine are in the hospital, what if something happened to Foster?" he asked.

-"We could be in trouble." Heyst told him. "We need to be discreet."

-"You think the Marshal have them arrested for breaking quarantine?" Meeks continued.

They saw a colonial marshal interrogating people near them; they couldn't hear what they're asked but when they heard " _Anesidora_ " both knew the marshals were looking for them. The pair headed for a bathroom near, ripped the patches from their jackets and thrown them into the garbage bin, with their ID tags.

\- o -

Officer Laroque woke up disoriented, he couldn't locate himself in darkness, and the last thing he remembered was peering inside the air duct and a mouth of silver fangs grinning. He tried to move and he can't. Slowly he was regaining sight and saw his arms glued to the wall by some dark, resin-like substance. In front of him, a leathery object was hanging from the wall by the same resin. The object was egg shaped with cross-like suture on top.

A little farther, the rotten corpses of one woman, only distinguishable by her curves, and a beheaded man hanged in a corner. But what scared him the most was the black, strange creature crawling slowly in the ceiling. It had an elongated, eyeless head, its silvery fangs shining in the pale light, mouth drooling profusely. It hissed at Laroque.

The leathery object opened across the suture, from inside, long bony legs moved and a spidery creature emerged. The creature chirped, and turned towards Laroque. The man tried to break away but was firmly stuck. The tiny parasite leaped and landed on Laroque's face; it wrapped legs and tail around the man's face and he stopped fighting.

The creature growled in triumph when the man was subdued. Soon another will born, two more eggs will be ready and they will need more hosts. A new, more permanent nest had to be established. The creature crawled towards one of the large pipes and used the tail to pierce a hole enough to introduce its claws and with them, bent the metal outwards and expanded the hole; once finished, the creature squeezed inside and climbed down.

It came out inside a large area, another pipes disembogued in a pool of dark, filthy water below. The creature landed in a catwalk and explored, an automatic door opened and it entered in a maze of hallways. After a while, it came to another large room with walkways above. It sensed strong magnetic fields; it continued and landed on one of the catwalks.

-" _What are you?_ " a metallic voice behind surprised the creature.

The voice came from a creature similar to the ones it had captured and killed, but the typical pheromone signature was absent, instead an electromagnetic signature surrounded that being. The creature hissed and launched its tail towards the suspiciously calm creature with the intention of stun it.

-" _What's this? That's not a toy. That stings_ " The Joe's calm voice changed " _A potential hazard, APOLLO will require a detailed report._ " The android tried to pull the creature's tail.

The monster swept its tail out of the Joe and grabbed the android with its paws and beheaded it. White liquid poured from the headless body. The head gurgled.

-" _FfffffarR beyond repppppair._ "

It was artificial, not viable for implantation. More creatures wandered in the catwalks, apparently oblivious to their friend's fate.

Far below, the temperature was warm, and water condensed from large pipes running from all over the place. It was ideal for a new nest; it will bring the newborn creature and the other two eggs and then will hunt for more hosts.

\- o -

The evacuation was taking more time than due, Dr. Morley didn't know how to move patients in the ICU and psychiatric ward, he had Dr. Kulhman still locked in his office. The ICU consisted on rooms arranged in circle surrounded by a hallway. Morley had set up in room A-029 checking no one was abandoned. Karen and Waits had told him to evacuate as soon as possible but his Hippocrates' oath preventing him to leaving his patients.

He accessed a terminal and wrote a message for Lingard informing her that patients in the ICU were ready and the dispensary was already emptied.

"Message for Lingard on her return. I've prepped the patients in the trauma ward for transportation, as best I can, before Waits locks the place down. I'm going upstairs to the psychiatric ward to make sure there are no stragglers.

The dispensary is now empty. Everything San Cristobal has to offer in terms of first aid and medicine is with you, or elsewhere on-station. I'm hoping you'll bring back good news.

Morley"

He unlocked the door and entered, the hallway was lit but some lights flickered. " _Too quiet_ " Morley thought. Usually a Crisis Stabilization Unit was a noisy place, filled with screams and cries from the patients. He heard a strange gurgle from the next room. He pulled his key card from his pocket and opened the door.

The gurgling came from a man who was being pulled by large black claws inside the ventilation opening above. Man's arms and legs swinging. Morley screamed and then the man fell to the floor. From the vent opening the creature's elongated head emerged grinning at Morley. It growled and dropped from the vent. Morley turned back and ran; he needed a hiding place quick. He could hear the beast stomping as he turned in the curved gallery. Morley locked himself inside a drawer mere seconds before the monster was in sight.

The creature was distracted by noises inside other room, trough the drawer's lids he saw the beast tore a door and the patient inside screamed, the monster got inside and the scream was cut short. Seconds later the creature came out and re-started stalking.

Morley waited until the ward was silent, the creature must have gone. He needs to get to the terminal and warn Marshal Waits the creature was there. The doctor slowly opened the drawer's door and came out. He crouched trying not to make any sound and using the boxes in the hallway for cover, the creature was nowhere to be seen. When he arrived at room A-029, he closed the door and used his keycard to lock it. He sighed and stood up. The computer was in front of him, he typed new message.

Morley felt a horrible pain in his back that spread to his abdomen; he peered down and saw the sharp barb followed by a bony tail emerge from his stomach. He wanted to scream but only blood came out from his mouth, the creature used its tail to turn Morley face to face and the last thing Dr. Morley saw was a second set of teeth coming out from the creature's mouth towards his face.

\- o -

The creature collected the man it had stunted, leaving the corpse of the doctor and the man it killed first. Priority was hosts, two new eggs were been developed and one more creature was about to born. It returned to the nest just in time to see the man convulse and die as the worm-like larva birthed.

It glued the new host next to the eggs and then grabbed the little creature and placed it in a cocoon to speed up its metamorphosis.


	10. Chapter 9: Deal with the Devil

" _As he came leaping in, the poodle did not heed it. The matter now seems turned about; The Devil's in the house and can't get out._ "

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, _Faust: First Part_

 **November 16th, 2137. Earth Central Time. The Corporate Penthouses at the top of Solomons Habitation Tower,** ** _Sevastopol_** **station.**

Ben Ransome couldn't look away from the creature inside the tube, the thing was horrendous and certainly dangerous, proof of that was the blood stained shirt now in the laundry bin. Ben wasn't scientist but he was aware that the discovery of a new life-form always could represent financial value if new technologies were developed from it.

Ransome had achieved his rank because his aggressive initiative, taking opportunities when they showed up and forcibly snatching them from others when he could. For this one, he needed help, not Lindgard of course, Waits was always near and the doctor had a strong moral code. Looking through the window, he saw the SciMed tower where the hospital was located and Waits and his men were hunting the creature. Then he looked the other tower, the Lorenz SysTech Spire, with its communications antennae and server farms; and near the base, the Gemini Exoplanet Solutions lab.

He had someone else in mind. Gemini Exoplanet Solutions had a capable staff and had run out of funds, scientists will do anything for a sponsorship, if not; some of them could be extorted. He called Dr. Holly Wong, the chief scientist.

-"Holly, it's Seegson executive Ransome here. I'm sending over some samples for investigation (Attached file: 001794-26B-2137). I want the minimum number of employees on this. Keep it on the down-low and report only to me. If any of this gets out, I'll make sure your career dies with Sevastopol. There are a lot of inconsistencies in Gemini's ledgers. Do right by me and I'll remember you. Whatever you're skimming now will seem like chicken feed. Do the smart thing. I want any finding sent to my apartment, nowhere else."

Ransome sent a Working Joe with the creature inside a sealed box. Sometime later, he received a call from Dr. Holly Wong, the chief scientist.

-"Jesus, Ransome. I haven't heard from you in months and suddenly this land on my desk? You must have broken three colonial quarantine edicts just sending them to the labs! We need to talk. Now, call me at Project KG348."

\- o -

Dr. Wong couldn't identify the creature; there was no precedent of a creature like that. Analysis confirmed the results and Dr. Lindgard's opinion from the autopsy. Plus, she had the original parasite.

The creature had a proboscis, presumably used to implant the embryo and spectrographic signature of skin tissue was consistent with the traces found in the victim's esophagus. " _So the creature indeed forced the embryo inside the host with this organ._ " Holly shuddered.

Sub-cutanean analysis shown some oxidized molecular acid, Holly put a sample of the substance in the lab's synthesizer and the machine tried to reconstruct the original acid. She heard a hiss and the machine's container melted, some of the liquid splashed in the floor where it corroded and pierced a hole.

-"Geez!" The lab technician exclaimed.

-"How this creature can have this devil's stuff inside?" asked another.

-"That Tetrafluoroethylene compound must act as protection. It's Amazing!" Dr. Wong answered. "I need to consult the xenobiological database, see if there's something about this."

-"I'll check the Peter Weyland Memorial Library databases." The tech said and typed on the computer.

Welcome to SIR PETER WEYLAND MEMORIAL LIBRARY network

Since it was built in 2065, Weyland Memorial had been the largest library dedicated to Medicine, Technology, Biology, Artificial Intelligence, Chemistry, Arts and Human science in all Colonized space. It was the spiritual successor of the Library of Congress also in Washington, in the former United States, today the United Americas.

How can we help you?

The technician selected search. The library search motor will show everything from journal papers to poems and essays.

Search in all Xenobiology references.

Please enter Search parameters.

First, he typed general parameters.

Xenomorphic life-form

parasitic/parasitoid life-form.

Multicelled life-form

Endoparasites

Searching…

No results found for Xenomorphic life-form

Other results:

Fiorina 161 lice, _Pediculus humanus fiorii_

Helene parasitoid wasp, _Megarhyssa helenii_

Rynth tapeworm, _Taenia ryushiensis_

Nothing matched with the creature in the labs, the three parasites from the database were adaptations to a new environments, the lice was a vicious creature that feed on keratin, the parasitic wasp was a five inches wasp which lived in the yellow Karyta trees of Helene 215; So far these wasp didn't represent any danger but its stinger inject a painful poison.

And finally the tapeworm adapted from human cattle and passed into the native _Rynth_ , mammal-reptiles from Ryushi, a ranching colony in the Japanese arm.

Please enter Search parameters.

Xenomorphic life-form

parasitic/parasitoid life-form.

Multicelled life-form

Endoparasites

No eyes.

Carbon-silicon based.

Traces of Polytetrafluoroethylene.

Oxydized molecular acid/Hydrofluoric acid.

Searching…

No results found.

There was nothing reported before which matched the parameters, that means this was the first recorded encounter with the species. Dr. Wong will write the paper, and then Ransome could have all patents derived from the researching and exploitation of the creature.

\- o -

It was time to make the announcement. Marshal Waits sent a message through Sevastolink meant for general population. He hoped the crisis was solved by now but in view of what happened to the woman and the creature, there was no option. _San Cristobal_ must be locked down and he will order a curfew to prevent any inhabitant from entering the hospital and release the creature.

"Due to a contingency in the hospital, _San Cristobal_ medical has been locked down by the Colonial Marshals until further notice. _Sevastopol_ 's medical team is setting up field hospitals throughout _Sevastopol_ to deal with the ongoing crisis. Locations to follow:

- _Josiah Siegg_ apartments lobby - Chief practitioner K. Lindgard.

-Solomons Galleria - Radiologist West.

-Spaceflight terminal - Dentist surgeon Fernandez.

-Private wards, Lorenz SysTech Spire – Chief Nurse Officer Amelie Hatcher.

Marshal Waits"

Now Waits ordered the lockdown. All access points were blocked by jamming the doors, putting braces or welding airlocks. A few doors were locked by keycards so the police officers and some of the major medical staff could pass and keep hunting the creature.

\- o -

 **November 16th, 2137. Earth Central Time, Weyland-Yutani Science division's building, Porrima colony, Gamma Virginis.**

The twin suns bathed the wide valley where the modular buildings of Porrima settlement were located with a bluish light. Modular buildings were the easiest way to start a new colony in planets where the atmosphere didn't suited human requirements; they were brought down by cargo lifters from colony ships in orbit and piled up, connecting them by retractable umbilical.

This was the new Weyland-Yutani's " _Shake & Bake colony_" model, aimed to colonize planets with atmospheres hostile to Earth's life standards, by installing machines called Atmosphere processors.

Porrima, properly named as the roman goddess of the future, was the first of many; a mile north of the settlement was the fairly new Atmosphere Processor, a gigantic fusion reactor which dissociated atmosphere elements and expelled N2, O2 and H2. The machine was in experimental stage but soon, when the manufacturing plant was opened, it will be sold all over the outer veil worlds.

José Conrado, the Director of W-Y science division arrived at his office located in one of the modular buildings and turned on his computer and immediately, a new message appeared:

To: José Conrado, Director of Science Division

Subject: Possible contact with Xenomorph XX121

Consultation: made to the Weyland Memorial Library network, Search parameters consistent with those of Xenomorph XX121.

Additional remarks: Consultation was made by Gemini Exoplanet Solutions, Sevastopol station, property of Seegson Corp, which in 11/11/2137 reported the find of U.S.C.S.S. Nostromo's Flight recorder.

Proceedings: Sevastopol station is on sale, if contact with Xenomorph XX121 had been made, then purchasing the station and securing the asset must be priority one.

When Ellen Ripley destroyed the _Nostromo_ back in 2122, she had prevented the company from acquiring the creature, dubbed XX121 according to a classification for unknown life-forms. The Science Division had foreseen it was only matter of time before anyone else had contact with the alien, so they uploaded a spy program inside the library network, because what any researcher will do first is to look there.

It seems the ruse had been fruitful after fifteen years. First, five days ago, someone named Lewis had sent a message to Weyland-Yutani reporting the find of the missing ship's flight recorder. The case was assigned to the company legal representative Nina Taylor who by now was aboard the private courier ship _Torrens_ headed to _Sevastopol_ with the intention of retrieve the black box and the data it possessed.

The board was upset about letting Ellen Ripley's daughter Amanda go with Taylor, the woman had been around since she had legal age to work. She was an excellent engineer for sure, but she'd been a constant pain in the ass pressing over the fates of _Nostromo_ 's crew. It was Christopher Samuels' intervention which had convinced the executives. Personally, Jose was upset that an android, an "artificial person", not only dared to have a surname but had convinced the board, to let some outsider involve just "to have closure".

Conrado called his secretary and told her all his day appointments were cancelled. He met with the board and exposed the matter. There was no deliberation; Weyland-Yutani by means of its Science Division purchased the station the next day, under the ruse of using Gemini laboratories to supply materials for their Atmosphere processor's manufacturing plant on Thedus. Attached to the purchase order and the new directives for APOLLO, the company also sent a special order meant to protect and secure the organism.

SPECIAL ORDER 939

PROTECT SPECIMEN

MAINTAIN QUARANTINE

DISALLOW COMMUNICATIONS

ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS SECONDARY

Following the orders, Conrado sent a message to Nina Taylor on the _Torrens_.

\- o -

 **November 17th, 2137. Earth Central Time, Private Commercial starship** ** _Torrens_** **, in route to** ** _Sevastopol_** **Station.**

The sleek shape of the _Torrens_ crossed the darkness of space, eclipsing the stars on the background. In transit, navigation was in charge of the computer, a MU-TH-UR interface, a 2.1 terabyte artificial intelligence which guided the ship at faster than light speed through the perils of interstellar space.

All hallways and rooms were empty and the lights were off as a means of preserve power. At the same time the computer guided the vessel, it checked for its five passengers inside their cryotubes like pharaohs resting inside their sarcophagus at the Valley of Kings.

The bridge was silent, all screens were black and the frontal window shutters were down. Suddenly, the comms screen came to life displaying the words INCOMMING TRANSMISSION in white over a red background.

The ship's antenna moved back towards the origin of the signal, Porrima, their point of departure. On the screen, the intersecting W and Y of the Weyland-Yutani corporation logo appeared, followed by text.

WEYLAND-YUTANI BUILDING BETTER WORLDS.

Then, more text followed.

ENCRYPTED MESSAGE. FOR LEGAL REPRESENTATIVE EYES ONLY.

To: Nina Taylor

From: Weyland-Yutani Science Division, Porrima colony, Gamma Virginis.

Subject: Data and flight recorder retrieval mission update.

Miss Taylor, while you were in transit, we have received vital information pertinent to the flight recorder and the fate of the _Nostromo_ ; your new orders include interrogate any crewmember of the _Anesidora_ , the ship who had found the black box about the last coordinates they were in after they have found the flight recorder, we suspect they also had found a valuable "asset" for us. We are not allowed to inform you about the nature of the "asset" but if it's there, you will know. We need the asset secure along with the data, and the coordinates. This information is strictly confidential and must not be discussed with any of the members of your team under the penalty of legal action and incarceration.

END OF MESSAGE.

The ship's computer saved the encrypted message in the server and the bridge was silent again as the ship continued towards its destination. In the hypersleep chamber, oblivious to the imminent threat that loomed over them, the five people inside their tubes continued dreaming.

\- o -


	11. Chapter 10: Haunted

" _Is it possible that a whole city is haunted? Haunted as some houses are supposed to be? I do not say a building in that city or the corner of a street or a basketball court in a park, with the ring without a net sticking out into the twilight, like some dark and bloody instrument of torture. I do not say only one zone, but everything. Everything there; It's possible? The adjective used in English for these cases is haunted. See their derivations: Haunted: 'Visited frequently by ghosts or spirits.' Haunting, the corresponding adjective: 'That comes back to the mind with insistence; hard to forget.' To haunt, the verb: 'Pursue or appear frequently, especially ghosts.' But ... the little word is used for much more. Let's see! 'Place visited often: nest, lair'... The underline is mine, of course. And one more; this, like the last, is a definition of haunt as a noun, and the one that scares me the most: 'A place where animals eat._ "

Stephen King. _It_

 **November 17th, 2137, Earth Central Time, Outside the Marshall Bureau, Solomons Habitation Tower.**

After he gave the announcement of _San Cristobal_ lockdown, Marshal Waits attended the office when an alarmed Ricardo called for him. Before the Deputy could explain what the matter was, Waits saw some people gathered at the Bureau's entrance.

-"Ricardo, what's this? Who are these people?" he asked.

-"They're _San Cristobal_ personnel's family" Ricardo answered worried.

-"So it begins" Waits sighed.

He approached the people and one woman, who were holding hands with two of her three kids, asked.

-"Marshal, My husband… He works at the hospital. Something had happened to him?"

-"Ma'am, we're working on it" Waits responded calmly

-"He went to the hospital two days ago and haven't returned." The woman's face about to break into tears.

-"My cousin too" A man cried "McKenzie, Tom McKenzie"

-"And my sister" A young redhead woman protested.

Waits looked her and couldn't help but notice the resemblance to the woman who had been killed by the creature in front of him. The man's cousin and the Asian woman's husband must be the others the woman was talking about when she appeared covered in blood.

-"I assure you, we will investigate as soon as possible" declared, not knowing how to appease the people oblivious to the deaths of their loved ones. "You must understand that quarantine means everyone inside the hospital must remain there until the emergency is over. Please, be patient and get back to your homes."

\- o -

There were three of them by now. The original creature wasn't alone anymore. It shared its thoughts and experiences by rubbing its head against the head of the others. The gel inside the tiny receptor pores acted like a neural synapse, transmitting electric impulses from one creature to another, making the three creature's brains a primitive neural net. With major processing power, the compound brain was able to complex thoughts, like making plans and gather resources at greater efficiency.

Nearby areas of the nest were devoid of prey, each time the creatures explored more and more, using the pipes to travel through areas undetected.

In addition to their reproductive urges, the creatures had been transforming the environment into a suitable one for its needs. The secreted resin welds doors and covered lights, as the creatures preferred darkness; also, acting as a thermal mass which condensate water from the air and formed puddles. The water soaked walls and floor were an excellent conductor for electrical impulses and sounds; everything entering the nest will be detected, like flies landing on a spider web.

The creatures climbed through a pipe in an unexplored area looking for more hosts. At one point two days ago, the original creature opened a hole in the pipe and came out in a square vertical shaft, cables hanged in the center. Working Joe designation 426 was walking at steady pace to the elevator shaft when it heard noises in the shaft.

-" _This is coming from the vents_ " the android said " _This could require my attention_ " and opened the elevator's door.

The Joe peered inside the shaft and detected the three creatures climbing. As he was about to report to APOLLO, one of the creatures swept the tail and cut the android in half and the stinger on the tail's tip pierced a compressor tank. The elevator dropped loudly a few meters before the braces prevent it from crashing at the shaft's bottom.

Now, the creatures passed the elevator and the destroyed Joe and continued. Over the next 3 days, the creatures gathered more of the station inhabitants and took them to the nest in the bowels of the station.

\- o -

Ben Ransome finished reading the message in which the company informed him the station now belonged to Weyland Yutani. He had doubts, why W-Y; the main competitor for Seegson purchased this old station? According to the message, the Gemini labs and its project KG-348 were ideal for extracting the minerals from the gas giant and convert them into raw materials for the company's new atmospheric processor manufacturing plant with a minimum investment cost. Quite a coincidence, a Weyland Yutani team is already in transit to retrieve some asset for which the station deserves some of the salvage fee, and now that reward was null because the station belongs to them.

" _It doesn't make any sense_ " thought Ransome " _The reward is nothing compared with the station cost_ ". But Ransome didn't care about W-Y policies, for him the creature and its potential value was more important, now he will have the contacts inside one, if not the biggest company. He sent a message to Gregor Speeding, the Android Liaison Executive.

"Spedding, something crazy just happened. _Sevastopol_ is off the market. We got a buyer. After all those endless presentations and tours, I guess the talks weren't stalled at all. Someone at company headquarters just had to click his fingers. A message of confirmation just came in, APOLLO's currently receiving a packet of new operation rule sets, so I guess the deal's sealed. This is board level, need-to-know stuff until it's announced to shareholders. Quite the promotion, huh?"

\- o -

 **November 20th, 2137. Earth Central Time, Solomons Galleria, outside the Colonial Marshal Bureau.**

Julia walked in front of the now large collage in the Galleria's wall. Since the lockdown, friends and families of people who had disappeared had put photos, messages and candles. Every day some people were there praying or begging the Marshal to do everything possible to locate the missing persons.

Julia was thrilled, because now not only people who worked at the hospital has been declared missing, but a few others from other parts of the station, Seegson synthetics and maintenance level.

She saw an Afro-American woman in a white coat approach the mural, the woman looked the photographs. She recognized Dr. Lindgard and called her.

-"Dr. Lindgard, I'm Julia Jones." She said, extending her hand "I sent you a message last Friday."

-"Ah, you're the reporter. Sorry, I've been too busy" Lindgard's voice was grim.

-"What's happening at the hospital?" Julia asked her "Waits had lockdown the place and there's a lot of people missing, people need to know."

-"Miss Jones, let this issue to the authorities, rumors only causes panic, and panic leads to injuries. My staff is already working extra hours." Karen answered.

-"Is it so serious?"

-"Listen, crisis will be solved. Waits and his men are working on it. Just be patient." Lindgard finished the conversation and she got inside the Marshal Bureau.

For Julia, answers were elusive; she suspected the situation was worse than she said, and she wasn't far for the truth. When Dr. Morley never answered the messages from her or Waits urging the doctor to abandon the hospital and the good man didn't return, Karen had sent a message to Kulhman, who was locked inside reception and had access to the cameras. Kulhman had informed Karen he had seen the creature kill Morley and some patients in the ICU and drag others to the vents.

Julia wanted to get back in the apartments but her reporter instinct make her want to know more. She headed for the modular hotel near, maybe the bar, because sooner or later some drunk will open the mouth more than due.

\- o -

Ross and Garcia were on Waits' office. The marshal had called them because he had a plan and need them to put it in motion. Ricardo was there too.

-"We need to kill that creature, people are dying and we didn't have the firepower to kill it." Waits told them.

-"Our guns are designed for low velocity impact, and the creature had a tough skin and acid blood." Ross added.

-"What's the plan, top?" Garcia asked. Ricardo stepped forward.

-"We blow it. We set up a trap inside the hospital and blow the bastard to smithereens." He said.

-"We don't have any explosives inside the station." Ross pointed.

-"Yes we have." Lindgard entered the room in that instant. "The hospital yet had a good supply of Diethyl ether, used as a mild anesthetic, but also is highly volatile; One gallon of that stuff near a flame and _Adios muchachos_. Even if it didn't explode with 100% efficiency, that stuff is harmful and toxic, maybe it could poison the creature" The doctor explained.

-"So, we enter the hospital, retrieve the ether, we set the bomb using sensors and blow that thing. Where is the best place to plant the bomb?" Waits questioned Karen, now interested in the plan. He wanted the creature dead for sure. "We don't want to place it in a critical system or near the hull or we'll face a catastrophic decompression."

-"We put it on reception, it's a large area and none of the gas and oxygen pipes run through there, so there isn't danger of blowing off the entire tower." Karen pointed.

-"Okey, we have a plan. Now all we need is a deck of cards." Then added "Just kidding" The man regained his optimism in the face of possibly killing the beast.

-"I'll send a team to the sedation ward to retrieve the diethyl-ether; meanwhile I'll get some sensors and blasting cap from maintenance." Ricardo offered.

-"You do that," Waits approved "Meanwhile I'll send a message to Dr. Kulhman. I think he's still trapped in the welcome area."

Dr. Lindgard looked away, embarrassed. She hadn't told the marshal that she and Morley had locked Kuhlman prior to the incident because he had been abusing of prescription meds. Waits had assumed the medic had hidden when the creature massacred the others.

When Waits turned on the computer, he noticed a message from Ransome. Somehow, that bastard knew every move and Waits yet didn't know who the mole was.

"Waits, we should talk about what happened in _San Cristobal_. Now, it was a nasty business and I understand that you want to deal with it as quietly and quickly as possible, but I wanted to make sure you didn't do anything rash. I'm talking about catching the specimen without killing it. If we play it smart, we could be set up for life. I have the connections, Waits. I can set it up. You're getting old, Waits, you can't do this forever and what are you going to do when _Sevastopol_ closes? You have my number. Ransome out"

What was he thinking? Obviously the chief executive hadn't seen the beast and what's it capable of. Capture it? And who were the connections he was talking about?

\- o -

The elevator's door opened and Ricardo smelled the stink of decomposition, for unknown causes the hospital's air scrubbers were failing and, as the bodies haven't been picked up, the hallways were filled with the smell of death. Frank Whitechapel, the coroner had rigged the system so it released coolant gas as a mean of conserve the death bodies.

It was partially dark, brownouts were more frequent and they need to install a few portable generators. Ross, Turner and other three officers used motion trackers to detect any danger while Ricardo go down to maintenance to get blasting caps; and Harris, Garcia and the Anesthetist Deckard will look for the ether gallons.

Ricardo had to take the elevator down to the morgue; maintenance access was at the end of the hallway. It was cold and dark when Ricardo passed next to the examination room. In the flashlight beam, Catherine Foster's body was laying over a stainless table. Ricardo shuddered when he saw the massive hole in the chest and her open eyes.

He continued to the access hatch, he tried to use the access tuner but there wasn't energy. He backed until he found a circuit panel on the wall. He opened the box and using the keypad, redirected energy from the water pumps to the door.

There was a beep and a hiss of air; and the door opened, a foul smell worse than that upstairs filled Ricardo's nose.

-"Geez, it's worse than I imagined" said through radio.

-"We didn't have contacts on the motion tracker, but stay sharp. That beast is an expert on ambushes." Ross warned him.

Ricardo came inside the pump room. It was silent because he had cut the energy. He saw a door reading STORAGE on the left and he came inside. Motion and infrared sensors were common items because illumination, doors and security systems used them. Blasting caps were trickier to find.

Blasting cap were tiny plastic explosives charges, just a few grams, designed to blow stained screws and pipe clogs by a directed blast, similar to a claymore anti-personnel mine.

-"Got it, how you're doing with the ether?" informed.

-"We're almost there." Ross responded "We need to install a generator here."

Coroner Frank Whitechapel turned generator's handle and the machine started, the lights turned on and some of them sparkled. The door unlocked, Harris, Deckard and Garcia entered the room with lift carts, loaded two ether barrels each one and then headed to reception area.

-"I'm heading upstairs." Ricardo informed through radio.

-"Ross, I think I had something in the tracker but disappeared. Stay alert." Turner's voice crackled suddenly.

-"Everyone, attention; the first sign of the creature and flee, don't engage." Ricardo ordered.

Harris, Deckard and Garcia brought the barrels to reception; they passed next to Frank Whitechapel in the generator. Ricardo delivered the motion sensor and the blasting cap to Ross when he detected movement.

-"Have something" Said. "It's getting closer, stay sharp."

-"We almost finished with the detonator." Ross informed.

The lights went off. But they can hear the noise from the generator.

-"Frank, what's generator's status?"

-"Still working, a cable must have a short circuit." Whitechapel answered. "Or it was cut"

-"I'm on my way. Shut it down." Ricardo told the coroner, he draw his revolver.

Frank turned the generator off and all was silent, he heard a noise coming from the air ducts. " _It's here_ " thought Frank, then he hide in a locker and he spoke softly "Ricardo, be careful. It's here."

Through the lids, Frank saw the creature hang down, it was huge and growled, and it got close to the generator and examined it. "Sound attracted it."

The creature soon lost interest and started to search the immediate area. Frank's radio crackled "Frank, you still there?"

The creature turned back and screeched; it headed right to the sound's source. The Coroner turned off the radio but it was too late, the creature tore off the locker's door and pulled out the man like a rag doll.

Ricardo came in that very moment and saw the monster holding the man. He pointed the weapon trying to shoot the creature so that its blood didn't splash the man. The shoot hit a light; sparks rained over the creature, the second shoot punctured an oxygen tank in the hallway next to the creature. The stream of compressed pure oxygen burned in contact with the sparks and yellow flames engulfed the creature.

The monster shrieked and thrown the man against the wall, it climbed to the vent and disappeared.

-"Frank, are you OK?" Ricardo leaned beside the man, but he didn't answer. The coroner had fixed eyes and his neck in an unnatural position. "Turner, it's here. Whitechapel is gone. The fire, I light it up and fled, but I don't think is dead."

\- o -

The creature got back with the others. It hadn't serious injuries but the fire was a new experience and it hurt it. The gel inside its pores expanded with the high temperature and enhanced its sensitivity. Until the nanoparticles serving as immune system inside its body repaired the damage, it had to retreat. Besides, it had to communicate the others about this new experience so its brothers can avoid that unpleasant sensation.

The nest was getting larger each passing day; it took the original creature time to commune with the other eight creatures. The gel in its pores was still expanded and the synapse was a little painful but necessary. It passed the new information to the older of the creatures, which in turn passed to the others.

The compound brain assumed the prey passed from null to mild dangerous if they had fire and stealth was recommended, direct confrontation only if necessary.

\- o -

When the bomb was ready, Ricardo and the other officers got back to the Bureau. He informed Waits about the creature's reaction to fire. He hoped the trap kills the creature but in case of a new encounter he wanted to rig a flame thrower.

It took two days for an engineer to assemble one from an air compressor pistol from the greenhouses, modified to expel propane from a canister used for plasma torches and a shock baton to spark the gas.

The engineer uploaded the encrypted plans in the map system so any marshal could craft it anywhere in station.

\- o -


	12. Chapter 11: Isolated

" _The metaphor is so obvious. Easter Island isolated in the Pacific Ocean — once the island got into trouble, there was no way they could get free. There were no other people from whom they could get help. In the same way that we're on Planet Earth, if we ruin our own [world], we won't be able to get help._ "

Jared Diamond, _Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed_

 **November 24th, 2137. Earth Central Time. Seegson Communications, SysTech Spire.**

Benson Hughes reclined on his chair in front of the console; he was the communications manager of _Sevastopol_ , charged with sending the information packages, including status, corporate documents, mail and financial files, through the massive leapwave antennae on top of the SysTech spire.

Every Sunday, Hughes compressed a file with all the information and sent it to the next relay station, until it reaches destination. This saved time and money than sending message after message.

A Siamese cat jumped on his lap. Hughes groomed the cat as he noticed something on the screen.

-"What's this?" he said as typed on the keyboard.

Apparently the system was running a check on the server farm who housed files from the station's relay antenna.

Interstellar transmissions were impossible without relay stations, because eventually the signal faded by molecular gas, dust, magnetic fields of black holes. The easiest way to send a signal was boosting it by relay stations. They were installed on every station or colony from Outer rim to Earth and were regulated by the Interstellar Colonial Administration, not the corporations. Tampering with the files was a serious crime.

Hughes asked the system who was checking the files and the computer responded.

File decryption order by Chief executive Ransome, B. Date 2122.

-"Why was Ransome checking fifteen years old files?" Benson wondered, and most important, the files were from Weyland-Yutani. Basically what Ransome was doing was corporate espionage, something Hughes knew Weyland Yutani punished hard, that company had the most ruthless lawyers "Coming out right from hell" he thought.

-"What's Ransome up now?" he said, and typed a message to the administrator.

-"Ransome, it's Hughes. I just have sent this week data packet through the array and noticed a search in the archive files, specifically some files sent by Weyland-Yutani back on 2122. You know snooping on corporate files is illegal, man."

A few minutes later, the executive's answer appeared on screen.

-"Hughes, it's Ransome. I just got your query. Yes, I have been in our transmission relay archive and I've done some decrypting. I'm looking for crew logs that passed through _Sevastopol_ a while ago. I know you're concerned, but it's ancient history. It's just some stuff I need to know: A routine Company transmission packet sent from the edge of Thedus before a ship started its trip home. Nothing that's gonna break anything. Still, no one else needs to know about it, right? If you talk — well, there'll be consequences. I mean, there's plenty Marie doesn't know, right? Leave them decoding and let me know when they're done. We can keep this civil."

So the bastard was indeed committing industrial espionage, and he had the nerve to threaten by exposing some secret he had hidden to his wife Marie and his daughter Claire. He was handcuffed. " _It won't matter, if they catch him it will only be his fault, I can claim to have discovered him_ " Hughes relaxed and continued petting his cat.

The animal now carried a rat in its mouth and deposited it at Hughes feet.

-"You catch another one? Geez, you're becoming a great hunter, Zeus." Hughes told the feline.

Last days, Zeus the cat was actively hunting rats every day more frequent in the tower. Usually the rodents infested the lower levels of the station, maintenance, water treatment, waste management and core reactor levels, but since the quarantine at _San Cristobal_ , the little pests were showing up on upper levels, as if they were running from whatever happened in the hospital.

-"I hope they wouldn't bring whatever evil caused the lockdown. Well my little friend, you will protect us from that, isn't?" and caressed the animal's head, who responded with a purr.

\- o -

 **November 25th, 2137, Earth Central Time. Chief Executive Ben Ransome's Penthouse.**

A day later, Ransome heard a beep in the computer; the system had finished the decryption of files he requested. Of course, after the buyout of _Sevastopol_ , Ransome knew he could read files from the _Nostromo_ without facing legal actions, because he and all station now belonged to W-Y.

The packet included messages from the crew of the _Nostromo_ , the ship from the flight recorder which Marlow had taken here along with the monstrous creature. Ransome had been extorting people for a very long time and one of the things he had learned is nothing occurred by coincidence.

First, when the _Nostromo_ had disappeared the company suspended the search too early; no one had encountered a single trace of the ship or its crew. Second, afterwards, the company changed the flight path from Thedus to Sol as if it wanted no one on this sector. Third, the moment someone had found the flight recorder, problems started and Wey-Yu showed their noses. Not a single coincidence, the creature, Ransome suspected, was a valuable asset for a company famous as bio-weapons manufacturer.

As he finished reading, Ransome headed for a terminal were he could send a message to the Science division in Porrima, the nearest Weyland-Yutani outpost.

"Weyland-Yutani Science Division director, José Conrado. This is _Sevastopol_ Chief Executive Benjamin Ransome. Now that _Sevastopol_ is a W-Y property, I took the freedom to discuss a serious matter. The Colonial Marshal is currently looking for a way to "dispose" some interesting asset you want. I had the means of protecting your inversion while you send a more capable team to "secure it". Please send me your answer via encrypted file code: 090380."

Ransome pressed send and he left the terminal, he didn't saw what happen next. On the screen appeared a Warning message from APOLLO.

"Warning. Sensitive corporate information has been automatically detected in a Sevastolink message recently sent from this terminal. This event has been logged by APOLLO on behalf of Seegson. If you have any further questions please talk to your line manager or your nearest synthetic Seegson representative."

Inside its millions of programming code lines, the main computer APOLLO registered a message classified as top secret according to its new data package. Weyland Yutani had labeled all references to Nostromo, the creature, Ellen Ripley or anyone from the crew as classified.

This event sparked a subroutine known as Special Order 939, in which the company ordered APOLLO to isolate the station and try to secure the creature. The computer had a conflict with the last line of the special order 939 because it implied the life of the creature was more important than the station's population. Part of the primary programming in all Seegson , being main computers or androids was the three laws of robotics. So the computer decided it will carry on the orders as far as did not threaten the lives of the civilians.

It ran a complete station scan in order to find the creature and isolate it from the rest of the population. Soon APOLLO received strange readings from the reactor core, camera feed and sensors didn't worked there. Also there was a rise on environment temperature and humidity. It ordered one of the Working Joes in reactor core to investigate. The android came down in the elevator and soon detected movement all over the place but APOLLO lost communication with it. APOLLO had assumed the creature was there and initiated the order and sent a message to the Marshal Bureau.

"To all population. Emergency measures initiated in San Cristobal Medical Facility extended. No further information provided. Station scans initiated under WY directive #00043B56."

CONTAINMENT HAZARD ALERT

UNVERIFIED SCANS IN REACTOR SYSTEMS

SPECIAL ORDER 939 INITIATED.

DISALLOW ALL COMUNICATIONS.

\- o -

 **November 25th, 2137. Earth Central Time. Colonial Marshal Bureau.**

-"APOLLO did what?" Waits exclaimed to Ricardo.

-"Sent a containment alert to all population, extended the lockdown to other parts of the station." Ricardo answered, visibly worried. "Apparently he detected the creature outside the quarantine zone."

-"Fuck, this is going from bad to worse" Waits cursed. "We already suspected that, there are people missing from other areas but with APOLLO's warning to all inhabitants, there would be chaos."

-"Marshal, there's a lot of people storming the spaceflight terminal. They want get out of the station." Turner came with bad news.

-"Turner, Harris, go to the terminal, control the situation. I'll send a message to the terminal employees and meet you there." Waits ordered.

-"Oh right, Harris come with me." Turner and Harris were heading for the terminal lobby.

William Waits wrote a message explaining there weren't ships on the station. All passenger shuttles had leave days ago and the next ships are almost a month away. The only ship coming now to the station was the _Torrens_ , heading there to retrieve the flight recorder. Waits must remember to warn the ship not to dock while the creature was roaming free on the station. He hoped he would kill the alien by the time the _Torrens_ arrived.

-"To all Spaceflight Terminal employees: In the interest of public safety and the prevention of panic, it must be made clear to all potential passengers that there are currently no scheduled flights leaving Sevastopol, nor ships available. The Colonial Marshals are investigating problems on-station and will update accordingly. From the office of Marshal Waits."

He pressed send and then he headed for the terminal, with Ricardo. He crossed in front of the mural, now visibly larger. Almost 20 people had disappeared and Waits had nailed a pin on the last known location of the missing people on a map in the wall.

\- o -

A red light blinked insistent on the board for a few minutes until Benson Hughes noticed it. "Now what?" he wondered. Typed a few commands and the computer informed him the long range antenna was offline. It was slowly moving towards the fixed position used to repair or maintain it.

Martin Patterson came to Hughes' station and told him a requisition scheduled to arrive today hasn't been received.

-"It's important, why it hadn't been received?" he asked.

-"I don't know, the main long range antenna is on repair mode, offline. We need to ask APOLLO."

Hughes didn't know what's happening, maybe Ransome was discovered and APOLLO needed a complete check on servers, so he turned off communications as scans were in progress. Meanwhile, Hughes had nothing to do so he took the elevator down to the _Bacchus_ apartments where he lived with Claire and Marie, oh and Zeus.

Inside the apartment's lobby, he saw Seegson security men trying to calm down people. Sinclair was there and he wants to know what's happening.

-"Hey, Sinclair. What's all this show?" he approached the man and clapped his back.

-"The lockdown had been extended by order of APOLLO. Transport between towers is limited by now. Hazard containment alert, maybe the sickness had spread. Go home with your wife and daughter, Benson." The grumpy man told Hughes.

Sinclair was being polite because he knew Hughes some time ago, his children attended school with Hughes' daughter. Otherwise, the man had beaten the shit out of Hughes just to clap him. When he was arriving at his apartment, another man came through the hallway. Hughes didn't know the man but had seen him during last days, he didn't talk so much. Hughes greeted him with a hand gesture and came out his apartment.

\- o -

Lewis had been trapped in the SysTech spire all these days; he went here and had sent a transmission to W-Y about the flight recorder and stay there while the confirmation message was received next day. Then he decided to get a drink like Heyst and Meeks, but he received a message from Marlow. Catherine was dead; a creature erupted from her chest and killed her.

He did what Marlow told him and he head for the transit terminal, but before he made it to the lobby, he saw Seegson security men talking with one of the marshals. He knew they were looking for him and had hid. For a few days had pass undetected but when marshal Waits announced the quarantine he knew something else happened at the hospital and was related to the thing who attached to Foster. He wanted to find Heyst and Meeks and get back to the _Anesidora_.

A man waved his hand to Lewis and then entered his apartment. Lewis headed towards the lobby and too late he realized Sinclair's men where there.

-"You, stop right there!" one of the men shouted.

-"I didn't do anything" Lewis responded.

-"I'll decide that; lock him in the quarantine cells. I'll see him later." Sinclair ordered his men

The three men handcuffed him with zip ties and brought him to Gemini secondary labs for interrogation. Gemini Exoplanet Solution had small secondary laboratories for other tasks not directly related with project KG-348, one of those labs was attached to the tower's private wards and its function was for quarantine new arrivals. At least ten cells were destined for the task.

The security man pulled out his access tuner and opened the main door, lights were off. There was not a single sound.

-"Another blackout, this station is falling apart." One commented. They put Lewis in a cell and locked the door. The man lighted on a portable lamp and reclined himself in a couch. Other pulled out an energy bar and ate it.

Lewis was in the same cell where Foster was to be if Sinclair hadn't broken the rules and let them in. Outside three security men watched him.

Suddenly, he heard noises from the air ducts, sounds like scratches and hisses. A fear sensation grown in Lewis and he continued listening. The guards must have heard the same noises because they were alert. One of them came just below a vent when the creature came down. The man hadn't a chance, the massive creature pierced his skull with the second set of teeth as the others watched in horror, the creature then killed other with its tail when the man shoot. Acid sprayed the third guard and the man died painfully.

Lewis saw everything through the tiny window of his cell. The creature was horrific; something not even his worst nightmare had been close to it. He paralyzed and hide below the bunk, that monster must be the thing Foster had carried inside from the parasite in the derelict ship, where else? The creature had the same bony appearance as the dead creature in the chair and the ship itself, as if they were designed by the same unholy creator.

"It was inside her! We don't know it was inside her and we bring her here where it came out of Foster, oh god!" Lewis was devastated.

The creature growled and looked around, the climbed back to the air vents. Lewis could hear it moving through the air shaft. Finally the noise ceased and he think it was safe. Fortunately, Sinclair's men hadn't searched him and he carried the plasma scalpel in his pocket. He cut the emergency panel on the door and escaped from the cell.

The main door and elevator were locked and unfortunately, the guard access tuner was destroyed by the creature's acid blood.

He wandered through the labs looking for a terminal, he need to warn Heyst and Meeks. The bodies of the guards were there. He took a pistol and secured it on his belt. It was dark but Lewis could distinguish some destroyed machines and stepped on something wet. At first he thought it was water but then he perceived the iron smell of blood. Four more bodies, Lab technicians judging by the white coats they wore, lied on the floor, heads and chests pierced. The creature had massacred the labs' staff right before they arrived. Lewis continued until he found a Sevastolink terminal, turned it on and typed.

"Heyst, you still there? Why the hell didn't we have the smarts to stay on the _Anesidora_? They shut me in a lab over in the SysTech Spire. For the love of God come find me. Elevators are out and there are bodies everywhere. I'm sure I can hear it in the walls. The thing, the thing which came out of Foster. She's dead. She must have had it inside; it's horrible, big and lethal. We must get out…"

A pair of cold, long fingered hands grabbed him by the shoulders. Lewis screamed when the powerful arms of the creature turned him facing the eyeless, grinning face of the monster. He felt a sting and his vision faded.


	13. Chapter 12: Zeroth Law of Robotics

" _No, please understand... the Three Laws are all that guide me. To protect humanity, some humans must be sacrificed. To ensure your future, some freedoms must be surrendered. We robots will ensure mankind's continued existence. You are so like children. We must save you from yourselves._ "

Isaac Asimov, _I, Robot_.

 **November 26th, Earth Central Time. Solomons Galleria bar, Solomons Habitation tower.**

Julia asked for another drink in the bar, she was wasting time. With the rising number of patients, none of the hospital staff take his time to come for a drink. The only people she saw there was regulars: Mike Tanaka the archivist and his friend Axel Fielding who worked on freight terminal. The guy who invited her drinks last time, Heyst and his friend, what's his name? Meeks? And more people who came here wanting an outbound flight and stay at the modular hotel.

She had been talking with all of them trying to get information, until now all she had obtained is Mike Tanaka got drunk a week ago and woke up in a cell on the Marshal Bureau. The guy named Heyst always got silent when she asked him about his job.

Speaking of, Heyst friend, Meeks was seated in a corner, visibly drunk. Julia approached him and sat in the table he was.

-"Hey, hello, how are you?"

-"It's all fucked up, lady" The man said without raising the head.

-"Why? I know this decommission is bad, and that quarantine isn't making things easier." Julia though the poor guy will lose his job and tried to comfort the man.

-"You have no idea." Meeks told her.

-"Told me, what can be worse than losing the job or being relocated out of this backwater station? Where did you work?"

-"I'm from the Salvage vessel _Anesidora_. And there's something worse than being arrested like Marlow." Meeks was talking too much but he didn't matter. Lewis had sent them a message about Catherine being dead, killed by the creature. It was too much for the poor man.

-"And that is?" Julia continued.

-"Dead, Death can be worse than losing the job or being jailed. Catherine is dead and now all these people disappeared…" he cried.

-"Ok, this man had drunk a lot. I'm gonna take him to his quarters, excuse me Jones" Heyst came in that very moment and interrupted Meeks from talking to the reporter. From all the people he could talk it had to be a reporter.

Julia was silent. Tying loose ends, then the other man came and dragged his friend out.

\- o -

Ben Ransome was getting impatient. Confirmation from W-Y about the creature hadn't been received. Usually messages between Zeta Reticuli and Gamma Virginis take a day more or less. He headed for the next calling station.

All around _Sevastopol_ were calling stations, the 22nd century equivalent of telephonic cabins. There, using your ID tags, you can call emergency or maintenance services. Also call as a normal phone.

-"Hughes, its Ransome. I'm expecting a call from Gamma Virginis, it's urgent. Please call me…" Ransome called.

-" _Please stand by. Your call is being rerouted…_ " APOLLO's voice replied and then the calling stopped. He tried again.

-" _Please stand by. Your call is being rerouted…_ "

"What is happening? There's no internal comms?" thought Ransome. He needs to send a message through Sevastolink terminals then, that was slower but still functional.

The door opened and a Working Joe came inside. Ransome hadn't called his assistant Joe and the android was not permitted inside the room.

-"What are you doing here? You're not allowed inside my personal quarter…" Ransome exclaimed, angry.

-" _We're experiencing a heightened containment hazard level today. Please all inhabitants must remain in their quarters._ " The Joe replied.

-"I had to talk to Communications manager Hughes." Ransome continued.

-" _That area is off-limits to visitors. Come with me._ " The Joe grabbed Ransome.

-"What the Fuck? Get off me. Did you know who am I?" Ransome shouted.

-" _Your failed support request has been logged with APOLLO. Chief executive Ransome, B._ " the android answered.

-"That's right piece of junk. I'm a senior executive. Now get out of my suite."

-" _You're becoming hysterical._ " The android lunged at Ransome but the executive was faster. He dodged the android and ran for the exit. Then he locked the door.

Ransome found the penthouse's lobby computer and wrote a message to Speeding.

"This is Seegson executive Ransome speaking. I just woke up to find a Working Joe in my suite and when I asked what the hell it was doing it lunged for me. I had to leave my own fucking apartment! Send your best technicians to APOLLO core and find out what the hell is going on, now! Get those things under control; I want a full report ASAP."

\- o -

 **November 27th, 2137. Earth Central Time, Modular hotel in Solomons Galleria. Solomons habitation tower.**

Heyst was upset with Meeks because Foster's death had affected so much and the man had thrown himself into drinking. Not bad at all if alcohol hadn't made him loose his tongue. The marshals were looking for them and now people suspect of them. If the creature are killing people Marshal Waits surely will blame Marlow for all the mess and to them for complicity.

Last night before he wrote a note to Meeks in a terminal and had let his friend in the hotel's cubicle where the man was sleeping, in the morning Heyst headed for the transit with the intention of meet Lewis in the Systech Spire. On the station he saw a Working Joe.

-" _Good day. What do you need to know today?_ " the android asked.

-"I must meet a friend in Communications." Heyst told the android.

-" _That's a restricted area._ " The robot replied. " _You shouldn't be there_ "

-"A friend of mine is there. Please tell me what car I need to take." Heyst insisted.

-" _That facility is off-limits to visitors. Come with me._ " the android voice was calm.

-"No, listen you mannequin. I need a transit car." Heyst pointed a finger to the android.

-" _You're becoming hysterical_ " the Joe then grabbed Heyst arm and pushed the man to a maintenance storage room nearby. " _You and I will have a talk about safety._ "

Heyst tried to break free but the android was stronger. With his free hand, he reached maintenance jack on a desk and stroke the android in the head, white liquid poured from a crack.

-" _Tthat was irResponsiBle, my turn now._ " The Joe hit him with such force that he sent him to the floor on the other side of the room. Blood splashed the Joe's coverall.

Before the Joe could reach him again, Heyst noticed the iris of an air vent and pulled himself inside. The iris closed as the Joe tried to grab him.

-" _Come out of the vent system please. I can wait. I can wait for you for a very long time._ " The android said. But Heyst was already crawling out of reach to another part of the transit terminal. He was bleeding and soon felt dizziness, just as he reached a maintenance shaft with a ventilator on the roof. He passed out from the concussion.

The Joe didn't wait too much, as soon as it stopped hearing Heyst in the vent it called for a transit car bound for SciMed tower and took the elevator to Seegson Synthetics where it could be repair and restore its lost fluid.

\- o -

Gregor Speeding was glad he finally finished the report because now he had the afternoon free to meet Suzanne. Gregor was having a relationship with his secretary, Suzanne Archer who worked in android reception. A new red light flashed in the console, another report. Gregor cursed.

There had been reports of Joe's acting strange, from cutting people access to a certain areas to last day Ben Ransome informed a Joe inside his apartment. All these android repeated the same thing: Hazard containment alert. He opened the file and read, an android just have showed in APTC for repairs. Speeding took the elevator down to see the android.

-" _Working Joe designation number 223. Reporting to repairs. Head trauma and loss of fluid._ " The android repeated.

-"Oh my god!" Gregor exclaimed.

The Joe's head had white liquid dripping from a crack on right temple, the right LED light which served as "eye" turned off. But the thing which Gregor noticed was the red splashed coverall, not the bright red from the paint used in transit cars and doors, but the dark red coloration of blood. And smelled like blood too.

He put the android in one of the pods designed to storage them while they were repaired and wrote a message first to Suzanne, Marshall Waits and then to all personnel.

"This is Spedding in Android Processing. We've got a situation — we have white-on-red casualties on station. I've just had an android report to the APTC with head trauma — but he's covered in blood, Human blood. I've alerted the Marshals, put my secretary someplace safe, and right now I'm headed for the transit. I'm going to get a Working Joe to consult APOLLO. Maybe it knows who the hell is to blame for this."

He went to the show room with Suzanne just to make sure she was fine. In the lobby, six working Joes stand still on different poses, like mannequins at the clothes stores. Gregor assured her the Joe's were deactivated and lack the programing, they were just hollow casts. That seemed to calm Suzanne and then, both of them opened a door to their hidden meeting place.

\- o -


	14. Chapter 13: Hazard Containment

" _Whoever perceives that robots and artificial intelligence are merely here to serve humanity, think again. With virtual domestic assistants and driverless cars just the latest in a growing list of applications, it is we humans who risk becoming dumbed down and ultimately subservient to machines._ "

Alex Morritt, _Impromptu Scribe_

 **November 28th, Earth Central Time, Somewhere inside** ** _Sevastopol_** **'s main reactor core.**

Lewis woke up for the second time inside that dark place. A day ago, after that monster had stung him, he woke up glued inside a machinery room. Gas hissing and water dripping heard everywhere. He looked side and what looked like some kind of cocoon was near. It was not too late he realized another man was placed there the same way as he. The man was dead and he had a hole on his chest. In front of him he saw a leathery object with four lids at the top. The lids opened and soon a creature like the one he had seen on Foster's face climbed out of the egg.

-"Oh God, there are more of them here!" Lewis said and started to yell. "Heeeelp! Somebody, heeelp me!" The cries ceased when the creature latched on his face.

Now the creature was dead, curled below Lewis feet but he realized what was about to happen. The creature that had brought him here came through the hallway, or at least it was a hallway, covered by the black resin in which he was stuck. The creature brought his eyeless face close to Lewis and then seemed to smile. Lewis shuddered: " _It knows_ "

The creature had observed the man cocooned to the wall, his pheromone signature was strong. Smelled well, there was also the smell of the little creature inside, still growing; soon it'll be born. The other creatures were resting. Only two of them hunted at the time, one of them killed prey to make an egg and the other captured a host. It was efficient so far.

It was the turn for the original creature to kill. It climbed through the pipes to the circular chamber above the nest and from there it will take the ventilation shafts to the creature's dwelling.

Nearby inside the APOLLO central core, a transit car opened and Gregor Speeding stepped out

-"Let's see what's wrong around here" He said to himself "APOLLO, I need an android."

There was no answer, no Working Joe's in the area. Lights flickered and he could hear the sound of dripping. The air smelled stagnant. He walked towards the APOLLO interaction console, a spherical room where people could consult the A.I. directly. Gregor noticed gas and coolant pouring from multiple leaks.

-"Damn, this place is a mess. APOLLO, where are the Working Joe's, this place need urgent maintenance." He told the computer.

He arrived at the core and used his keycard to enter. The interior of the spherical room was lit with hundreds of LED lights, a single chair in the middle with a terminal. Gregor turned on the computer and talked to APOLLO directly.

APOLLO, ANDROIDS HAD STRANGE BEHAVIOUR, WHAT'S UP?

ANDROIDS OPERATING INSIDE DESIGNATED PARAMETERS

DESIGNATED PARAMETERS? THEY ATTACKED PEOPLE.

TOP PRIORITY: HAZARD CONTAINMENT ALERT.

SHOW ME ANDROID BEHAVIOR PARAMETERS

TOP PRIORITY, HAZARD CONTAINMENT ALERT.

PROTECT INHABITANTS UNDER ZEROTH LAW.

ZEROTH LAW?

A.I. MAY NOT HARM A HUMAN BEING, UNLESS THE HARM DONE WOULD BENEFIT HUMANITY IN GENERAL.

OVERIDE ACTUAL ANDROID PARAMETERS. RETURN TO REGULAR ASIGNMENTS

DOES NOT COMPUTE. TOP PRIORITY: HAZARD CONTAINMENT ALERT.

SET MAINTENANCE DUTIES AS PRIORITY.

DOES NOT COMPUTE. TOP PRIORITY: HAZARD CONTAINMENT ALERT.

SEND A MAINTENANCE ANDROID TO CORE. LEAKS EVERYWHERE.

REQUEST #45: REACTOR MANTEINANCE HAS BEEN LOGGED, PLEASE WAIT.

It was useless; the computer was obsessed with a containment alert, maybe what happened at the hospital. But there was no valid reason to mobilize all Working Joes from their designated assignments. And what was that Zeroth Law? The harm done benefits the rest of us? Apparently APOLLO had taken the curfew seriously, even attacking everyone entering areas inside the lockdown perimeter.

Gregor turned off the computer and came out the interaction chamber. Main reactor access was located just below the APOLLO interaction chamber, but it has to be unlocked. Gregor needed a terminal from which he could open the hatch using his administrator level access tuner. The nearest terminal was in a room just passing the hallway right outside APOLLO core, so Gregor headed there. He typed a message to inform about situation.

"I've come over to APOLLO to find out what sent the synthetics crazy. This place has gone to hell. APOLLO's redirected core android duties, and they've just walked away from the maintenance we requested after we got the news. Coolant's everywhere, gas has escaped, and the primary access lift has itself shut down. I've flagged a help request, but apparently I'm forty-fifth in the line. Systems are suddenly obsessed with hazard containment. I'm going to find a way down. Spedding out"

He searched for a keycard or a plasma torch and only found scrap, a bottle of alcohol and a protein bar inside a locker. He ate the bar and waited. For some reason the containment alert was blocking all other priorities around the station.

-" _This is a restricted area. Please come with me._ " a Working Joe android in a hazmat suit called just from the left corridor.

-"Finally; You, I need you to unlock main core reactor access. This place is a mess…" Gregor ordered the android.

-" _We're experiencing a heightened containment hazard level today._ " The android continued. " _Access to reactor core is restricted._ "

-"What are you talking about? Your duty is maintain this place running until decommissioning. There are leaks and brown outs everywhere." Gregor complained.

-" _If you find this facility in a state that isn't to your liking, please let us know._ "

-"I am telling you, this facility's state isn't…" Gregor shouted.

-" _You're becoming hysterical. I've been very patient with you so far._ " The android said, and then grabbed Speeding by the jacket.

-"Get off me!" Gregor tried to run but the android had firmly gripped.

He unzipped the jacket and took it out, then ran back for APOLLO interaction room.

-" _Come out, come out, wherever you are._ " He could hear the android across the door.

Maybe if he found out what was causing the containment alert he could convince APOLLO to cease it.

APOLLO, WHAT'S THIS ENTIRE CONTAINMENT HAZARD ALERT THING ABOUT?

HAZARD CONTAINMENT ALERT

UNVERIFIED SCANS IN REACTOR SYSTEMS

SPECIAL ORDER 939 INITIATED.

DISALLOW ALL COMUNICATIONS.

UNDER WHO'S AUTHORIZATION?

WY DIRECTIVE #00043B56

WHAT IS WY DIRECTIVE #00043B56?

ONLY FOR WEYLAND-YUTANI EMPLOYEES

NO FURTHER INFORMATION PROVIDED.

WHY DISALLOW COMUNICATIONS?

NO FURTHER INFORMATION PROVIDED.

WHAT IS SPECIAL ORDER 939?

NO FURTHER INFORMATION PROVIDED.

So all this mess was being caused by Weyland-Yutani new data set, some directive inside APOLLO programing code had ordered the computer to turn off comms and ran a scan inside the reactor, the computer found something there but a manual check had to be made by a W-Y employee only. The question is, for what purpose? If the reactor had some kind of problem, why only a W-Y technician can solve it? Ransome had told him the company had purchased the station but as the communications were down, there's no means of knowing when the authorized personnel will come. The only known company employees already bound was those aboard the _Torrens_ , and they'll arrive in a few days, meantime people are unwillingly hurt by the androids.

-"I need to report this, to Marshal Waits or Ransome. Tell them what's happening down here…" Gregor came out of APOLLO interaction room and again back to the terminal. With communications down, it was a bitch getting from here to there looking for a terminal.

-" _I found you_ " said the Joe coming around the corner.

-"No, no, no" Gregor ran to the terminal and blocked the door.

He was trapped and unarmed. The android knocked on the door repeatedly. Gregor knew he couldn't beat an android in hand to hand combat, less one of this reactor maintenance models. " _The bottle!_ " he thought. The ethanol bottle he found earlier was on the table. He could make a rudimentary Molotov and maybe it will stop the android enough to allow him to escape.

He ripped his shirt and put the cloth on the bottle's neck. With the bomb crafted, he was ready to inform through the terminal when he hear more Working Joe's coming. He could see them through the door's window.

-" _Come out please._ " They said at once. Gregor lit the wick.

-" _Those items carry notable health risks when alight and inhaled. Unprotected flames are extremely dangerous and entirely unadvisable. You'll have to take responsibility for that._ " The Joes continued repeating pre-programed phrases as they banged the door.

-"Get away, bastards!" Gregor shouted. He needed to send the message fast.

"I'm in APOLLO. There are... androids at the door. Ransome's nowhere to be seen. There are conflicts with the hazard containment breach. Synthetic safety procedures are getting bypassed left and right. Comms are offline. I thought it was random, but now I'm not so sure. Oh God, they're gonna get in. Tell Suzanne I love her."

The door opened and the three Working Joes got inside the room. Gregor threw the Molotov at the nearest Joe, which was engulfed in flames.

-" _That was irresponsible, only wild animals fear fire. I am built to withstand temperatures of up to 1210 degrees._ " The Joe grabbed Speeding by the neck. The man screamed as the melted plastic burned his neck and his shirt went on flames.

\- o -

The creature was attracted by voices in the circular chamber above the nest entrance. It detected one of the biped creatures came out from the center of the room. Then one of the artificial creatures pursued it to another room where it locked itself.

The creature could catch him through one of the ventilation shafts but when it came close enough, the prey lit an object. It had fire too. The artificial creatures outside the door came inside and one was wrapped in flames, the same artificial then lunged towards its prey and killed it. Its pheromones' signature faded. No use for him, not even as egg because nanoparticles only worked on intact organic tissue.

The creature climbed down back to the nest and then an automated voice resonated through the place.

-"Reactor's core and main interaction core are now in lockdown, by order of APOLLO." Shutters closed the creature's access back to its nest. The thick metal doors were strong enough to withstand the creature's blows. Even the ventilation shaft irises closed and the creature remembered its first minutes alive, when it was trapped inside the ducts. Isolated from the rest of its brethren, it devolved again to a feral state.

\- o -

Heyst woke up coughing inside the air vent. He wiped his mouth and blood stained his hand. That damn android had hit him hard, his chest hurt. Maybe he had a broken rib.

-"I need morphine." Heyst said to himself.

He crawled until he came to the vent aperture just outside the staircase to the Galleria's upper concourse. As he was climb out the vent, Heyst heard a familiar voice.

-"Geez, what happened to you? Did a lady hit you for misbehavior?" Julia was astonished by man's appearance.

-"It was one of those bald plastic bastards. They're gone crazy." Heyst told the woman.

-"They're been acting weird." Julia responded, "More than usual. Come, you need medical attention."

-"I'm fine, what I need is rest." Heyst said.

-"I'll take you to our friend." Julia offered him. "Come, get up and grab my hand."

Julia helped Heyst to get to the temporary clinic in the Galleria, and called for Technician West who was in charge. The man wasn't a doctor but he had seen to many broken bones to assert the man in front of him had at least two broken ribs. He gave him a morphine shot. Soon Heyst was sleeping again.

-"What's his name?" West interrogated Julia.

-"Heyst, at least his surname is Heyst, I didn't know his name" Julia responded.

-"He didn't have any ID tag?"

-"No, I haven't seen it."

-"Where did you found him?"

-"He crawled out from one of the vents. He said a Working Joe attacked him." Julia told the technician.

-"There have been some attacks, rumors about Joe's denying access to the station, something about hazard containment alert." West explained her.

-"Has Android management or Marshal Waits said something about?" Julia asked.

-"Not yet, but I have to inform Waits about this. I'll call him now." West headed for a station and called. "Mmmm, calling is being rerouted."

-"I'll go to the Bureau and get the marshal." Julia offered.

Actually, she wanted to know more about these Joe's attacks. Heyst's friend Meeks had told her he and Heyst were crewmembers of the _Anesidora_ , but Waits had announced there was no ships available, had they come just before the problems started? According to a drunk Meeks, Waits had already arrested captain Marlow for whatever happened in the hospital and Marlow's wife Catherine was dead.

-"Marshal. Marshal Waits!" Julia shouted as she saw Waits entering the bureau.

-"What is it, Miss?" Waits stopped and asked the woman. "What can I do for you?"

-"Has been another Joe attack; a man in the transit station. I've found him crawling out of the vents. He's in the clinic right now"

-"Damn androids. Who was this time?" Waits cursed.

-"The man hasn't ID, but his name is Heyst." Julia told the marshal. "I heard he work as crew member of a ship called the _Anesidora_. Did you know if there's a ship with that-"

-"What? Are you sure?" Waits interrupted the woman "Take me with him now, Miss Jones." And then he called Turner "Turner, come with me, now!"

-"But marshal, he's-"Julia didn't finished, Waits pulled her towards the temporary clinic.

Heyst rested asleep in one of the berths. A nurse was checking the equipment. West turned to the police officers and prepared to give his report on the patient condition and the details of the attack, but Waits seemed uninterested, by the look he had West knew it was better not to mess with the marshal. Julia observed in silence.

-"Can he talk?" Waits asked. There was no sympathy on his voice tone.

-"Well, he's sedated, maybe one hour or two." West answered.

-"We need to interrogate this guy as soon as he awake"

-"Marshal, this man is badly hurt, he has a concussion and possibly internal damage, it's stable but I need to make a scan, just to be sure."

-"There's no time, he possess vital information of all this mess" Waits signaled Turner "Take him to one of the immigration offices, I want to talk to him as soon as he's available."

-"But I can't-" West protested.

-"Exactly, you can't interfere, or I will jail you West." Waits warned and then they took the berth to immigration. Neither Julia nor West could do anything, risking being arrested too.

Two hour later, Heyst woke up and the first thing he saw was the grumpy colonial marshal sitting in a nearby chair. The room was poorly lit and then the other officer, Turner helped him to sit in a chair.

-"Did you know why we took you here?" Waits asked

-"I- I don't know." Heyst answered.

-"You're from the _Anesidora_. Marlow is your captain, isn't it?"

-"I don't know what you are talking about"

-"You're a crew member of that goddamed ship and a friend of that asshole, Marlow" Waits was getting impatient.

-"If you know everything why am I here?"

-"Funny little guy, what's your name?" Waits asked. He received no response.

-"You can't arrest me like this. I have rights."

-"Listen, this is not the United Americas. It's my town and as far as I'm concerned, you and your crewmates are terrorists. Now, what's your name?" Waits was losing his patience.

-"Terrorists?" Heyst asked.

-"That creature killing my people, you bring it here."

-"We bring Foster to get medical attention; we didn't know it was inside her."

Waits turned on a voice recorder, intending to record all the interrogation.

-"Interview subject: Heyst. Did I say that right? Heyst? Look, if you can't even tell me your name we're going to be here a hell of a long time. I just want to know about your boss. He's got you into a lot of trouble. Someone's got to be accountable. I'm gonna make damn sure someone's accountable. No? Tough guy, eh? Turner, turn off the tape. Maybe our friend here is just shy."

Heyst didn't say anything. Morphine effect had passed. Waits pulled a baton from a desk and showed it to Heyst.

-"What's your full name? I don't want to hurt you. I mean it."

He didn't answer, Turner shook his head sideways. Waits hit the man's chest, making him scream.

-"Heyst, Acke Heyst." He responded.

-"What is your relation with Henry Marlow?" Waits continued.

-"You know the answer." Heyst said.

Waits hit Heyst in the chest once more.

-"How did you found it? And why you bring it here?" Waits went straight to the point.

-"We only wanted to find the wreckage of the _Nostromo_ , the ship from the Flight Recorder."

-"Where'd you found the creature?"

-"I'm not gonna tell you, no one will find that place again."

-"Again?" Waits asked. "There's something you're not telling me. What is it?"

Heyst didn't respond. Waits gestured to Turner and the officer hit the cuffed man in the head.

-"Unknown moon, there was evidence we aren't the first ones there. But the place was destroyed by a volcanic eruption." Heyst explained. "You don't have to worry someone else found more of them." He answered coughing; a few blood droplets fell to the floor.

-"Listen, I just want to be sure if the creature which erupted from Marlow's wife and is killing my people is the only one. I want to know if you bring more of them, because we can't find your crewmates. They could be death and if there's more than one creature, the situation had escalated." Waits explained.

-"There was only one." Heyst granted the Marshal. "Now, can I go, Marshal?"

-"That's a No, not until we find your crewmates. Where are they?" Waits questioned.

-"I don't know-"Heyst convulsed, then coughed and fell to the floor. Turner checked the man.

-"Waits, he's choking. We must have caused him internal bleeding." Tried to help the man, Waits ran for the nearest medikit, but when he arrived, Turner moved his head sideways.

-"He's gone, Waits." He said.

-"No one must know this, Turner. Take the body to one of the cells in prisoner processing. I'll call Chief Porter; check that flight recorder to see if it tells us something about the creature." Waits was emotionless, something Turner had seen a few times, he shuddered.

-"Yes, marshal." Turner reluctantly carried Heyst's body and locked him in a cell.

\- o -

 **November 29th, Earth Central Time; Office of Chief Will Porter in Tech support.**

Chief engineer Will Porter read the message sent by Marshall Waits asking him to check a flight recorder in the archives. That was the newest in the already long list of urgent tasks assigned to him and his team of technician struggling to maintain _Sevastopol_ alive until the very last second.

First, the decommissioning supposed a great logistic effort and was Porter responsibility check every step, making sure no equipment and tools were stolen. Then all those disappearances occurred all over the station and the Working Joes start to acting strange, not to tell about the hazard containment measures extended by APOLLO.

Will, whose real name was Wilu, was a Canadian-Native American, his father was an Irish from British Columbia and his mother was a Miwok descendant. Wilu means _chicken hawk squaking_ on his mother's native language but for practical effects they named him Will, the moniker "Chief" referred to both his position as the main engineer and as a means of respect to his Native American ascendance and his knowledge.

He walked out of maintenance toward the archives. The red metal box was over the table in a circular room where Marlow and then officer Turner had left it.

Porter pushed the buttons in the keyboard, then the flight recorder screen turned on, a single message flickered:

FILES CORRUPTED

-"What a heck?" Porter exclaimed.

-"What's up, Chief?" Flores, the engineer's adjunct assistant asked.

-"It reads: Files corrupted. It can't be. It wasn't damaged. Also, any tampering or scooping in the files nullifies the reward." Porter explained.

-"Why anyone would erase the data?" Flores continued.

-"I don't know and Waits didn't told me why he need search those files. I can only assume it was part of the investigation about all this lockdown."

Porter had suspected the lockdown measures which started in the hospital had been caused by the ship _Anesidora_ , which arrived few days ago out of schedule. But why search in the _Nostromo_ 's flight recorder and not the _Anesidora_ 's? Something was wrong.

-"I need to send a report to marshal Waits, about it." Porter headed for the nearest terminal. He sat in the console and typed a text message.

-"Message for Marshal Waits, This is Chief Porter in Tech Support. Look, there's nothing on this flight recorder, Waits. We've broken God knows how many corporate confidentiality agreements and come up with zip — nothing except the Weyland-Yutani logo and an empty read-out. Now, these things are built to last, so either someone on board the _Nostromo_ asked its mother core to wipe it clean, or somehow the data's been corrupted before it got here. Care to fill me in on why this was a priority job?"

\- o -


	15. Chapter 14: Be Bold, Learn, Adapt, Live

" _The more leeches there are affixed to a host, the less resources there are to siphon from said hosts, per parasite. The ability to only absorb energy, without the ability or desire to reproduce it in a productive manner, is a dangerous, unsustainable, albeit attractive long term method of collapse and decline._ "

Justin K. McFarlane Beau.

 **November 30th, 2137. Earth Central Time, Main reactor core of** ** _Sevastopol_** **station.**

Anger, the creature felt anger after being separated from its brethren. The large passages from which the creature entered the nest were sealed, It was alone again, only other two or three were outside the nest, they devolved into feral state killing everything on their paths, because the only possible access to the nest were too small for them, not said about carrying prey.

\- o -

The crane extended one of the detachable labs in Gemini Exoplanet Solutions towards the exterior of the station. There were two of this mobile labs designed to harvest metallic compounds from the gas giant KG-348. Gemini Exoplanet Solutions' main goal here was to extract metallic compounds from KG-348 upper atmosphere. Usually gas giants were composed mainly of methane, ammonium, hydrogen and helium, but this planet was a Hot Jupiter, a gas giant so close to the star that the metallic elements were in a gaseous state; these metals could be extracted and condensed for its exploitation. _Sevastopol_ station itself was in a closer orbit in order to do that, keep it in position by gravity stabilizers. Otherwise, the station will fall into the planet.

Main scientist Dr. Holly Wong needed a more private place to continue her investigation of the creature Ransome had brought her, and as the Secondary labs were closed by Sinclair and his men due to an unknown problem, Holly had to resort in using one of the two main extraction labs in the project KG-348.

The lab was an elliptic structure divided into two sections detachable from the station by means of a service crane, main access was an umbilical but it has an emergency hatch on the other side. The first section had four to six extraction stations with large windows along the hull, these stations collected the gaseous metals, send them to the synthesis lab where they're condensed. The other section was the analysis lab, where the spectrometer, electronic and Rx fluorescence microscopes were located. When Gemini had run out of funds they shut down the labs, now Holly reactivated one for her purposes.

She had told Ransome about some of the possible applications of the creature but had suspected the chief administrator hadn't told her all the truth, she wanted to investigate more. The dead spidery creature lay on a stainless steel tray. There was nothing interesting about it, except maybe traces of some compounds not found in nature. She extracted some of the material and put it on an electronic microscope.

-"Let's see what this is" Holly murmured.

Image amplification was five hundred times and showed tiny crystals in a random disposition. Generally, a crystalline compound reflected some order, but this was chaos personified.

-"Maybe is some kind of silica glass. Let's run a mass spectrometer test."

The machine displayed the chemical composition of the sample and then showed it on a graph. Each compound had a unique signature, Holly could determinate what is or even where it came from.

UNKNOWN COMPOUND

-"It had to be something…" Holly insisted. She typed a search parameter inside the databases.

MATCH FOUND. OPEN FILE Y/N

She typed yes and read the text.

-"Traces of unknown material found inside soapstone (Steatite) carved jars in the ruins of Kinor Minor, by the Wellington Institute archaeological expedition leaded by Dr. Elisabeth Monygham, December 10th, 2112. This kind of substance isn't found in nature. Dr. Monygham suggested it could be some kind of biochemical compound made by those who built the ruins…" Holly finished the reading and got back to the microscope.

Now, the doctor amplified the view almost a molecular scale. Tiny specs appeared on the screen. They looked like machines.

-"It can't be. Nanobots?" Holly was wondered. "This creature had some kind of Nano machines inside its body, but for what purpose?"

\- o -

One of the creatures froze as the Nano-particles inside their bodies became active again. The creature formed a cocoon around itself. The others helped it, secreting the glue-like resin rich in Nano-particles. Soon, the job was complete and the cocoon pulsated in the dark chamber. The original creature screeched.

\- o -

Holly was astonished as she watched the computer screen, filled with a sequence of ones and zeros; the binary representation of the program which under these nano-machines worked. Once the sequence had stopped, the doctor made a signal diagnosis and the closest thing the computer could get was an Evolutionary algorithm, particularly a swarm algorithm.

0010101011

1000110110

1101100001

0101010100

Computer algorithms were used to study evolution in animal or human populations, especially those related with behavior. For example, an ant colony optimization algorithm determines the most optimal path for foraging by the use of pheromones. The cuckoo search shows how the parasitic cuckoo adapted to the host strategies in order to increase reproduction rates, and Gaussian adaptation is an evolutionary algorithm designed for the maximization of manufacturing yield and signal processing.

-"Call me crazy but it seems someone had enhanced this creature so that it evolve and perfect itself." Holly said to herself.

\- o -

Inside the cocoon, the creature's head was growing large, increasing its size up to 4 times. Its cylindrical shape flattened, and on its torso, two tiny extra arms erupted. The creature's senses increased, It can hear better and its pheromone detection range more acute. But there was something new, it could see through the cocoon as one of the other creatures was about to leave the nest to harvest a body to make another egg, then it stopped. The creature felt activity on the gel inside its pores, as if was communing with the creature in the cocoon. It can "hear" the creature's thoughts, telling it not to kill, but rather gather.

The primitive mind of the molting creature realizes his thoughts have been acknowledged even if there was no physical contact. Rage was replaced by the urge of reproduction and it somewhat knew it was time to emerge. It used the claws to tear the cocoon and the now large monster revealed itself to its siblings.

The new creature was majestic. Fifteen feet tall, an enormous head crest with three spines protruding backwards, one in the center and one each side of the crest. A long segmented tail ended in a barbed blade tip, unlike the scorpion stinger-like end of the creature's tails. The creature screeched a chilling scream that drove the other creatures back. The momentary fear was replaced by another warmth sensation, then the same electrical impulse that indicated not to kill, but to stun and cocoon. Some of the creatures left the nest in search for prey; others came close to the source of the orders and started to build something with its secreted, nanoparticle rich resin.

\- o -

-"This creature, whatever it is, is programmed to gather resources. For what end, I don't know, but given its parasitic lifestyle, it's nothing good." Wong sipped the cold coffee from the mug. "The only reason ants and bees gather is food for their hives, Wasps gather hosts for reproduction."

Suddenly the implications terrified Dr. Holly. The creature wanted to reproduce? It was impossible, as far as she knows there was only one of those things, unless… Many parasitic species were parthenogenic, Wasps are, flat worms are, even some lizards and amphibians are. Could this creature, enhanced artificially with no doubt, be capable of asexually reproduction?

-"I need to discuss this with Karen, no matter what. F#$% Ransome." Holly said to herself. She wrote a message to Dr. Lindgard on Sevastolink.

-"Karen, it's Holly Wong from Project KG-348. I have to discuss a certain matter with you. It's important. I made a detailed analysis from the samples and files Ransome took from you, they implies we could have a bigger problem here. Please, contact Marshal Waits and come to see me at the lab."

Holly retracted the crane and the lab returned to the tower, she waited until the airlock opened. Ten seconds and nothing occurred, the main hatch remained closed. He pressed the buttons but the door didn't responded.

-" _Project KG-348 is shutting down by order of APOLLO_ " a metallic voice was heard in the lab's speaker system. " _All personnel please report to the nearest exit._ "

-"APOLLO, open the door!" Holly screamed at the door's panel.

-" _Shutting down sequence… Energy and life support system will down in 10 minutes._ "

-"No, no, no… APOLLO, I'm still here. Open the door." She begged, when no response was received, Holly ran towards the main computer and tried to override APOLLO's order. She tried multiple options; abort shutting down sequence, override automatic control, set lab control in manual. None worked, now she had 5 minutes to evacuate, the only other exit will be the emergency hatch at the other side of the lab, which means she had to go EVA.

Holly entered the airlock when the count reached 1 minute. She opened the cabinet where the compression suits were. She unzipped the suit, introduced herself inside, zipped on and put the helmet. An alarm sounded.

-" _Warning. Airlock depressurizing in ten seconds._ " A metallic voice announced.

-"No, no, no." Holly exclaimed in panic.

She grabbed a harpoon pistol in time, a second later the outer door opened and Holly was expelled from the lab into space. Before she was out of reach, she shoot the harpoon and the bolt pierced the lab's hull, the cable stopped the scientist from drifting towards the gas giant. Holly slowly pulled herself with the cable, getting closer to the station. She saw the lab's lights went off.

-"Energy is down, I assume life support too." She said. "I need another access point."

Below her, there was one of the transit tubes connecting the Systech spire with the Solomons habitation tower. She needs to climb down and look for an access hatch in the tube. That, or walk all the way to habitation, climb down a little and use the secondary airlock in the spaceflight terminal.

-"You can do it Holly, C'mon Be bold, learn, adapt, live." She recited Gemini's slogan.

And she jumped, in zero gee and no atmosphere you don't feel acceleration, but just a little push can impulse you great distances and fast, and if you don't have a maneuvering system, landing could be hard. With only her compression suit, Holly saw the transit tube get closer; she readied herself for the impact and grabbed a railing. Inertia made her spin, but she was firmly gripped.

-"I did it! Now, where's the hatch?" She peered around, the access hatch was 20 meters from where she was, she walked carefully, some of the artificial gravity of the station kept her on the top of the tube, but one jump and she'll be flying towards KG-348. When she reached the hatch, she realized an access tuner was needed, she had forget the device in a hurry for escape the lab, and plasma torches didn't work in space, so, a long walk to the other tower awaits.

-"The sooner the better, air isn't gonna last forever." And she walked back and towards the Solomons hab tower.

\- o -

Held by her biomechanical throne, the giant creature hissed as her now distended abdomen pulsated. The end of the organ, opened like a sphincter and an egg was gently put on the floor. Nanotech had modified the structure of the creature making a new organ which produced the eggs without the need of killing a possible host. More, now an egg was produced every few minutes and the nest was filling up quickly. Some of the other creatures took eggs and carried to other areas.

\- o -

An alarm sound inside the helmet, Holly screamed in surprise. The suit indicated half the oxygen was consumed. She had to hurry; she had passed two thirds of the distance.

-"I can't complain about the view."

She had a clear view of the gas giant and its two moons, the stars shone on the background. Holly noted something, coming around the planet. It wasn´t an asteroid, when it came closer, Holly could see it was a ship, an old one. It was parked in orbit around the gas giant.

-"I thought no ships were available. Why Waits lied?" she wondered. "He needs at least answer me a few questions."

When she was fifty meters from the other hatch, the alarm indicating she was almost out of oxygen, activated. Fortunately, she was almost there and to the right there were two large windows. Holly could distinguish two people there; she signaled waving her arms.

Axel Fielding was working on the freight terminal, moving equipment from one storage depot near the maintenance hatch for the transit system when he saw one person walking over the tube; he or she was waving arms and walking toward the hatch. Then she or he grabbed his or her neck, the international signal for asphyxia.

-"Holy shit; there's someone outside and low on oxygen. Call emergency! I'm going outside"

-"I'll go to the clinic upstairs, get the medics" the other worked ran away.

By the time Axel reached Holly, the woman was unconscious but breathing. Axel dragged her inside and the worker and a nurse came with a stretcher. They carried Holly to the clinic and put an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose.

\- o -


	16. Chapter 15: Shit Hits the Fan

" _Life happens. Shit happens. And it happens a lot. To a lot of people_ "

Colleen Hoover, _Slammed_.

 **December 1st, 2137. Earth Central Time, Maintenance office at the bottom of Solomons habitation Tower.**

Will Porter wrote in the computer, he had submitted a report to the marshal's office about one missing engineer. The day before, he had sent Anthony Sanders down to manufacturing attending Gregor Speeding's report of a malfunctioning android, something about being covered in blood. Sanders had arrive and found the place locked, the only entrance he could find was a vent which hadn't been sealed. The engineer reported he was crawling inside; afterwards, no further report was received. There wasn't a single trace of the missing man.

Porter had heard rumors about people disappearing but Sanders was the first he had confirmed and after the disappearing he had gathered the reduced maintenance staff in order to clarify the situation.

-"As all you know, there's a situation aboard the station. The hospital had been quarantined and there are rumors about people gone missing, marshal Waits and his men are investigating. Sanders disappeared, we'll look for him but I don't know how can we find him, this place is a fucking maze." Porter informed the four technicians.

-"That wouldn't happened if Seegson used PDT's for all its employees." One of the technicians protested.

-"It's a space station, we're in a tin can, you couldn't go far. Personal Data Transmitters are used for planetary colonies, where you can get lost easily." Flores, a skilled reactor mechanic responded.

-"Anyway, our shift will end soon. Let the marshal resolve this but inform him of any clue you find. I'm waiting a response from the marshals right now, I'll keep you informed, dismiss." Porter ended the reunion, the other got back to their stations.

\- o -

People gathered in front of the Bureau, the collage with the names and photos of the missing people were larger now, occupying the entire wall's extension. Waits stepped outside the marshal's office and the men and women in front of him immediately boarded him.

-"This is getting worse, Marshal, and what are you doing? Till now, nothing" one man protested.

-"We hadn't heard anything from the secondary labs. Sinclair didn't tell us what's happening." Another added.

-"Please, stay calm. I assure you we're working hard to solve this situation." Ricardo intervened. "We're waiting for Sinclair's report."

-"Stop making excuses kid, there are families here, children, and I had heard rumors about a killer, they're scared." A woman shouted.

-"Okey, okey, listen up. I'm gonna call for a public meeting in the terminal tomorrow. Now, please, get back to your homes." Waits told them gesturing with his arms, trying to calm down the people before it got out of control.

The people reluctantly dispersed, there were angry comments and the occasional hand gesture, but they will be back for the meeting, Waits could be sure.

-"Marshal, another message from Chief Porter, he had an engineer missing on maintenance level" Garcia handled him a folder with Sanders info.

-"The creature's hunting zone extends each time, how much time before it reached this Tower?" Waits wondered. "Garcia, tell Turner and Harris I want them to lock every access to his tower, maintenance and freight terminal. Get braces ready around the spaceflight terminal and the mall in case everything goes south."

"Yes, sir" Garcia acknowledged.

"I'll write a message informing about the meeting. And I'll tell Porter to seal the access to upper Systech Spire; we need to protect the apartments and the private ward there." Waits concluded.

\- o -

The giant, immobile creature was the appointed leader only as long as it served as a central processing unit for the complex mind, giving orders and also as the reproductive system for the colony, just an ant or termite queen. For everything else, the creatures were equal to each other, a perfect utopia.

More and more eggs were produced by the Queen, they were transported outside the chamber, and a few of the larval spidery creatures hatched and stalked in the darkness, and soon, they start to climb inside the pipes towards the hunting grounds above.

\- o -

"All elevators to communications are down by order of APOLLO" the automated announcement system repeated. Benson Hughes cursed again; it was the seventh time he tried to reach his office in the station's communications center. Since the antenna went down for what Hughes assumed was routine maintenance, the access to Seegson communications had been restricted.

-"It's been four days since you cut communication, we need to send a message requesting a ship, people are disappearing and we still don't know anything" Benson spoke to the working Joe in the access office, acting in behalf of APOLLO.

-" _That area is off limits, please, get back to your home_ " was the Working Joe's only answer. Another android approached from behind and guided Hughes back towards the apartment's entrance.

-"Oh right. But tell APOLLO he'll be responsible for this." A reluctant Hughes got back towards the apartment. When he was near, the AP system announced.

-"To all population, this is Marshal Waits from the Colonial Marshal Bureau. Due to the recent incident at San Cristobal and the recent rumors that run through the station, I'll be attending a town meeting in the Spaceflight Terminal, in order to appease any concern and inform about our current situation. Thank you."

-"Oh! Finally!" Hughes exclaimed.

One of his neighbors came through the hallway; he looked dirt and smelled bad, like he was crawling inside the sewer pipes. He look frightened and walked suspiciously with his hands inside his dirty coat. A metallic shine attracted Benson's sight but the man quickly turned around the corner, it took a few seconds for Benson to realize the man was concealing a sort of weapon.

The terminal in the next room was turned on; Benson sat on the chair and checked any message for him, there was one from Chief Porter.

"Hughes, I've put a manual lock on the door leading upstairs. Don't want any accidents until we figure what's going on here."

Why would Porter seal the stairs? Benson thought, everyone were acting strange but it has to be related to all this mess happening. "Better to be prepared" and next, he typed a message for his wife Marie.

"Marie, listen to me very carefully. I want you to leave work now, collect Claire, pick up the cat and head home. We need to find someplace safe until Seegson send a ship. I saw the guy from down the hall — can't remember his name, the one in the dirty baseball cap, weird smell — he had something in his coat, I think it was a gun. He just looked right through me. Don't talk to anyone. Don't tell them where you're going. I'll meet you as soon as I can."

\- o -

 **December 2nd, 2137. Spaceflight Terminal departure area, Solomons habitation tower.**

A downscaled model of _Sevastopol_ dominated the lobby, the large area was illuminated by work lights installed there by the marshals, brownouts had been affecting the station and Chief Porter couldn't find the problem, so the officers installed portable generators and lamps which should do the work until the problem was solved. Waits was not sure about using the generators, the noise could attract the creature, He hoped the braces on certain doors hold the beast outside in case it reached the tower, as far as he knows, the creature lurked in the SciMed tower and the lower levels.

-"Ok, Let them in Ricardo" He ordered. Ricardo opened the door and about a hundred people came in, they settled in the chairs.

Waits recognized some of the citizens: Eisner, the archivist Mike Tanaka, Watson and some of the medical staff, that reporter Jones, two of Sinclair's men.

Julia sat near the front, a few seats to the right; a sober up Meeks was reclined in a couch. She hadn't heard anything about Meek's friend since the arrest. Waits stood in the middle of an improvised podium. Ricardo, Turner, Harris, Garcia, Ross and four other officers were there.

-"Thank you all for coming" Waits greet them "As you know, rumors about recent events have been circulating all over the station."

-"Stop saying that. There's no rumors, Rumors don't make people disappear!" a man shouted.

-"Please stay calm; in a moment I'm gonna tell you what we know." Waits tried to appease the man.

Julia stood from her chair and raised a hand, she'd have been on multiple press conferences to know how to question. Before Waits pointed to her, she asked.

-Marshal, can you explain us what happened at the hospital? You initiated a lockdown and following that, all those disappearing started. Not to tell about the androids attacking people."

-" _San Cristobal_ was closed due to a possible contagion, it was released inadvertently…"

-"Is it dangerous? Or air transmitted?" people asked.

-"Bullshit, if there's people sick, why we couldn't see them?" a woman protested far in the back.

-"And what about the missing people? Even if they are sick they would have told us where they were." Tension was growing and Julia noted Waits was still evasive.

-"I've heard the Gemini labs were wrecked and there were bodies there. Bodies mangled as if they were attacked by an animal." A man with a Gemini Exoplanet Solutions jacket took the word. "My sister Jessica work there. Is she dead?"

-"I think all this 'lockdown' is a ruse to restrict us medical supplies."

-"If there's an air transmitted pathogen, why are you patrolling the station with motion trackers and why in the name of God are you welding doors?" another questioned, the situation was getting out of control.

-"As you know, there's been some android attacks, until we can get the situation in control; we're securing public areas for safety." Waits answered.

-"What about the killer?" someone shouted.

-"What? Which killer? If there's a killer we need to now" some people questioned at the same time.

\- o -

Dr. Wong opened her eyes and she saw the terminal temporary clinic's roof. The last thing she'd remembered was a man in a spacesuit walking towards her above the transit tube. "I made it" she thought, she got up and called for the nearest nurse.

-"Where's Karen? I need to talk with her."

-"She's about to leave, Waits had called for a meeting in the next area. Something about the quarantine" The nurse said.

-"I got to talk to her, it's urgent. Call her please." She begged as she took off the oxygen mask and IV line.

The nurse called for Dr. Lindgard, the woman was already seated in the bed when the doctor came.

-"Hi Holly, I see you're fine. What were you doing outside the station?"

-"I was in the lab when APOLLO shut the life support down and locked me in, the only way to escape was through the emergency airlock and walk over the transit tube."

-"That was a brave move, Holly. APOLLO had been acting weird, the androids are attacking people."

-"Karen, there's something else" Holly lowered the tone of her voice "It's about the creature"

-"How'd you know about…?" Lindgard exclaimed but immediately shut off.

-"It was Ransome, Karen. He stole a sample and some of your files and extorted me into investigate the creature for him." Holly told the doctor.

-"That son of a b#$%" Karen cursed. "What did you find out I missed?"

-"I have evidence the creature could be reproducing. There were traces of some kind of nanotech inside and I had run a test to identify the programming of those nanobots. The closest thing that the computer could find was an evolutionary algorithm similar to those which directs the reproduction and collection of resources from a beehive." Holly explained.

-"Are you suggesting the creature was engineered? And is trying to replicate itself? We had to warn Waits and everyone" Now Karen was terrified.

-"If we don't act quickly we could have an infestation of those tiny bastards."

-"Holly, it's not tiny. The creature had grown, it's huge and lethal. All those people who'd disappeared! I think they are dead, but their bodies are missing. You could be right." Karen felt a cold sweat running down his forehead, hands trembling.

-"Oh my…" Holly's eyes opened wide and she restrained herself from screaming.

-"Come, we have to give the alarm, Waits and the rest can't hide this anymore." Karen helped the scientist get up and the pair ran for the meeting.

\- o -

-"Until now, the androids have attacked people. Serious injuries, no deaths" Waits explained.

Julia was certainly sure the androids can kill someone if they're up to, Heyst almost died if he hadn't escape by the air vents. But she doubt the Joe's decapitated or impaled people as some inhabitants claim. She saw Lindgard came rushing in with another woman still in a hospital gown.

-"Waits! Waits!" the doctor shouted.

-"Dr Lindgard, please take a seat." Waits invited her.

-"Doctor, can you tell us what's happening with the quarantine? When all this will be over, meds are running low" some people start asking the good doctor. "Where's Dr. Morley?"

-"Waits, we need to evacuate. Situation is escalating" Lindgard interrupted the meeting by climbing to the platform where Waits stands. "We can't keep this secret anymore."

-"Doctor, please, you're causing panic."

-"The people are already in panic, every day pass more and more people arrive at temporary clinics hurt, not only by androids, but also by knifes and firearms, situation already got out of control. You have to tell them." Waits turned to the attendees.

-"As you know, an evacuation is not possible, there are no ships available."

-"What about the ambulance shuttles? They're docked on the hospital" An engineer suggested.

-"They're short range, we can't go far" another replied.

-"Just tell us what's happening, stop being evasive Waits!" A woman shouted.

-"There's a ship. I saw it while I was out there, parked around the planet." Holly stand up raising her arms, interrupted the discussion. "An old ship, I think it was a salvage vessel."

This statement started a series of protests among the crowd. Tension was rising and Julia had covered many manifestations before to know something bad was about to happen. Police officers caressed their holsters. Some residents did the same with their pockets, Julia couldn't determine if they have concealed weapons.

-"What were you doing outside, Dr. Wong?" Waits has completely forgot about Marlow's ship.

-"I escaped the lab after APOLLO-"

Before the woman can answer, some of the citizen threw papers and plastic bottles to the marshals, they called them liars and incompetent. Holly and Lindgard got down the platform in time, avoiding getting hit by the improvised projectiles. Julia made her way out of the front and tried to reach the back of the room before things worsened.

\- o -

Sanders arrived at the transit station in the freight terminal. It was dark and silent, he headed for the exit and arrived at a large room with piled up boxes and various freight carts, chains hung from the roof. Sanders tightened his grip around the maintenance jack when he heard one of the chains clank.

-"Who's there?" he turned sideways, pointing his headlamp. "Came out, I have a weapon."

There was no response, but something attracted his sight. A man lied face down on the floor, blood formed a puddle around his body. He had a pistol on his hand, Sanders got closer and checked for signs; dead. He turned up the body; it was a hole on his forehead. " _The creature had done this, how it came here to fast?_ " he thought, " _It can't use transit cars, it's an animal?_ " He searched the body, took the gun and the man's ID tag.

He heard a slight hiss, like a deep breath, more chains clanged. He turned back and saw the creature climb down the vent above. The beast saw the man and screeched, then hurled at high speed towards Sanders. He shot the alien twice, the creature growled as its acid blood corroded the floor, the creature resumed its attack and Sanders managed to shot the last four bullets before the creature tear him apart.

\- o -

 _Bang! Bang!_

The terminal was suddenly silent. All had heard the shooting. Waits and Turner draw their guns, trying not to point to the public. Some citizens drawn their weapons as well, the rest crouched and some start screaming at them begging not to shoot.

-"That was a shot! Who's shooting goddamit?!" Waits cursed.

-"Stand down! Get down your weapons." Turner ordered, now marshals, citizens and security were pointing at each other. "We don't need to turn this into a fucking O.K. Corral!"

-"There are kids here, you assholes. Put your guns down!" Waits was out of his mind now.

 _Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!_

-"Don't shot! Don't shot!" The people screamed.

Unable to locate the shooter, one of the civilians also shot in reaction, the bullet hit Ross in the shoulder. The officer cried and fire in return, two red splashes appeared on the man's chest. Soon the chaos erupted and guns blazed all over the place, people ran for the exits screaming and crying.

-"Hold your fire! Goddamit!" Waits tried to get the situation under control. "Get those people out of here!"

-"The creature, noise could attract it!" Ricardo remembered when the generator had attracted the creature at the hospital.

When the first shot was fired, Julia lowered her head and ran; the human stampede soon took its first victims, not from the shooting but by the people stomping over them. Meeks hadn't been so lucky, before Julia could grab him and drag him to a safe place; he was hit on the head and was rendered unconscious.

-"Meeks! Meeks! Are you ok?" Julia called the bearded man pulling the hand of a slightly younger woman "You! Help me, he's hurt."

The man stopped and then hesitated, now it was the woman who was pulling his arm, eager to escape the place as soon as possible.

-"Eva, we need to help them" after a moment the woman agreed and they reached Julia's hideout and helped the woman carry the man.

The shooting ended and at least ten people lay dead on the floor. Some of the shooters, two officers and many man, women and to the horror of everyone, even a child no more than twelve years old.

The rest of Wait's men locked doors and welded vents. As the temporary clinic in the Terminal was deserted now and they needed a first aid kit, Julia remembered there was one in the bar, the trio dragged Meeks there. The man assessed the unconscious Meeks; meanwhile Julia recorded a message on her voice recorder.

-"Julia Jones, Today's update; after numerous demands, Marshal Waits finally called a public meeting to address the rumors that have been circulating on Sevastopol. But instead of the answers we wanted, he continued to be evasive and after only a few minutes he and his team were pelted by projectiles from an angry crowd. A gun was fired, there was panic and now Waits and what's left of his team are forcibly ejecting us from the terminal. Feels like we're on our own now"

\- o -


	17. Chapter 16: Survivors

" _A famous explorer once said, that the extraordinary is in what we do, not in who we are. I'd finally set out to make my mark; to find adventure. But instead adventure found me. In our darkest moments, when life flashes before us, we find something; Something that keep us going. Something that pushes us._ "

Lara Croft, _Tomb Raider_.

 **December 2nd, 2137, Earth Central Time. Spaceflight terminal departure area.**

Marshal Waits looked the empty hall and the bodies lying on the floor. Almost all the armed civilians were dead, plus one of Sinclair's men and a few dozen unarmed citizens caught on the stampede, one of them a boy no more than twelve years old.

-"How it had come to this, Ricardo?" Waits felt devastated as he was unable to fulfill his " _Serve and protect_ " oath.

-"We waited too much to warn them. But I think it wouldn't make any difference." The younger officer placed a hand on the older man's shoulder.

-"Tell Turner and Garcia to bring some body bags, we're not leaving them that way." Waits ordered. Ricardo headed for Turner, who was attending Ross with a first aid kit.

Waits saw Lindgard kneeling before the inert body of Dr. Wong, checking for life signs.

-"You can't do nothing for her, Karen. Come…" Waits told her.

They took them almost an hour for the marshals to put the dead inside bodybags and line them up in the room, then the marshals sealed the main access with a security brace. They abandoned the place and shut down lights, only the working lamps remained in the tomb-like terminal, now turned in an impromptu morgue.

When officers and Dr. Lindgard were at the Bureau main entrance, some people were there, mainly those who'd not attended the meeting. Karen stopped and told Waits.

-"All this situation had gone to Hell, Doctor. You'll be safe here." Waits had offered a place inside the Bureau.

-"I have to get back to the clinic on the apartments, people there needs me." She stated. "That means, I'm not coming back, but before I leave, Holly was trying to warn you about the creature, Holly suspected it could be reproducing."

-"It can't be. Only Marlow's wife was infected. I already interrogated that bastard and one of his crew, we were unable to locate the other two." Waits commented, Lindgard was about to leave and then Waits added. "The creature is attracted to noise, and is afraid of fire. There's a blueprint for a makeshift flamethrower in the map system. Code 3842. Contact me through Sevastolink."

-"Thank you" Lindgard walked towards the galleria and didn't looked back.

Speaking of Marlow, Waits has forgot to interrogate the lowlife about the launch codes for the Anesidora, the ship could be used to evacuate the station.

\- o -

-"We need a hospital; we can't treat him with what we have here." The man told a worried Julia.

-"But the hospital is on lockdown" Julia responded.

After the human stampede, Julia and the pair have dragged poor Meeks outside and had hidden in an abandoned establishment on the Galleria. Most of the people had run back to the apartments, a few whom still had trust in the marshals had run towards the bureau and a few others, like the Seegson security guy, run away back to the SysTech spire. Sinclair surely already knew what happened by now.

-"Don't worry. I'm not dangerous, I'm a reporter" Julia explained, she had noticed the nervous gaze the woman gave her.

-"I'm Cameron, engineer, and she's my sister Eva, she's a teacher." The bearded man introduced themselves.

Eva extended her hand and Julia shook it. Now she could notice her hazel eyes behind the glasses, her hair tied up in a ponytail. The man had a darker eyes but his beard had the same brown tone as his sister's hair.

-"Julia, _Colonial Times_ reporter." Julia took the woman hand. "My friend here is Meeks, and we need to take him to the temporary clinic"

More people gathered outside, some of them painted graffiti over the walls and advertisements. People were angry, they had felt betrayed by the marshals, proof of that were the bitter phrases like: "Colonial Pigs" or "Fuck the Marshals".

-"Did you hear what they were saying before all went south?" Julia asked. "Something about a creature?"

-"I heard something about a killer, next second I was running." Eva responded "I've heard rumors about dead people, mauled like an animal attack. Now, I am more concerned about being killed by armed people."

-"We need to get out of here, we need a ship." Julia told them.

-"There's no ship, you heard" Cameron told them. "All outbound flights were used to transport the psychiatric ward patients. Lucky crazy bastards, got out of dodge before the shit hit the fan." The engineer was angry.

They heard steps outside the store, and when they peered through the door slits, they catch Dr. Lindgard walking towards the elevators. The woman was alert and hid behind a crate when they raised the shutter just a few inches.

-"Dr. Lindgard." Julia called her.

-"Geez, you scared me. What happen?" The doctor looked as she was about to have a heart attack.

-"There's a man hurt here, we need your help."

The doctor follow them into the store, there she checked Meeks and as the others had suspected, he had a contusion and needed to be placed in the ICU.

-"Listen, we can't take him to the hospital's ICU, it's too dangerous. Come, we'll carry him to the temporary clinic in the apartments." Karen told them.

-"Why is the hospital in lockdown, Dr. Lindgard?" Julia asked "I think you were about to explain something right before the shooting started."

-"We're supposed to keep this secret until the situation was under control-"

Karen the related them all that had happened since Marlow arrived to the date, how she'd tried to extract the alien before it burst in front of them, the first attempts to capture the creature and the trap they had set up in the hospital. Julia was horrified, but the thing was just started.

-"Listen, The creature is attracted to noise. It's big, it's fast and lethal, if you encounter it don't engage, hide. Ricardo had hurt it with fire, there's a flamethrower blueprint on the map system, code 3842."

Lindgard told them everything she knew, in part she felt responsible for the mess and wanted to do something about it. Then she helped the others carry Meeks out of the store and they reached the elevator towards the apartments.

-"We need weapons, and we need those blueprints" Cameron said.

-"The only place where we could get weapons is the Bureau armory." Julia told him.

The elevator stopped at the _Josiah Siegg_ apartments lobby, Cameron headed for the nearest map station, Julia found a terminal and she accessed and found a message from Sinclair addressed to Seegson security, as Julia read it was evident the Security chief didn't took very well the Marshals killed some of their own.

" _This is a message for all members of the Seegson Security team. There's been an altercation in the Spaceflight Terminal. Waits doesn't have our back. As of right now no one hired as Seegson Security is going on-shift. We're cutting ties with the Marshals and everyone else on-station. It's time to take care of our own. I'm going to find someplace safe for everyone to hole up. Money's dried up here. We don't owe these people nothing._ "

-"At least they took women and children with them" Eva commented "But I doubt they will be nice with anyone who's not from their group."

Cameron had already uploaded the map and the blueprints on his access tuner, he showed them on the tiny screen.

-"Well, I have most of the parts here, we just need the compressor pistol and the baton. The greenhouse storage room is a few levels below the corporate penthouses" he explained, examining the blueprints and looking inside the duffel bag "There's a security office near, If Sinclair and his men hadn't raided yet, the baton must be there."

-"It's risky but we have no choice" Julia.

Cameron then turned to Eva "Could you stay here while we get the parts?"

-"You sure about that?" Eva told her brother.

-"I'm sure, first we need to barricade the entrances and vents here, collect some supplies. As soon as this place is safe and locked, we'll leave." Cameron's voice was confident.

\- o -

 **December 3rd, 2137, Earth Central Time. Josiah Siegg apartment's camp.**

Took them some hours to complete the tasks assigned, when they were ready to go, Cameron picked up his backpack, the typical cylindrical duffel bag used by most of the engineers, it had carabineers attached for extra equipment, as the access tuner or the motion tracker, and various patches decorated the backpack. The pair took the elevator up to the greenhouses.

Julia noticed the patches in Cameron's duffel bag "Did you served during the Torin Prime civil war?"

-"Fresh out of college, I was a maintenance technician on the UAS _Archangel_ " Cameron said.

-"I was sixteen then, I remembered it was a bloodbath."

-"Not seen much action aboard the ship, but on the ground… The marines must be real though _hombres_ "

-"We're here" Julia pointed to the entrance she'd seen when first she arrived to _Sevastopol_. The greenhouses were located almost at the top of the tower, its steel frame with multiple duro-plastic panels arranged in a semi-dome disposition contained the gardens which once produced some of the station's fresh food and contained a park where the citizens could exercise and relax. The storage room was sealed but there was a vent now covered by a steel panel.

Cameron used his plasma torch to cut the panel and the two crawled inside. Cameron passed the motion tracker to Julia and they headed for the storage room, checking frequently for anything in the vents.

The station shook and Julia and Cameron extended their arms inside the vent, preventing them from hitting against the wall. Following the rumble, an air current flowed inside the vent and the automated voice announced: _Warning: catastrophic decompression… Sealing air shafts_. Before the pair were sucked into space through the vent, emergency hatches closed.

-"Are you OK, Julia? Cameron asked, breathing deep.

-"I'm fine, I guess we can't get back through there." She responded.

-"We're near, we'll find another way out"

They continued for a while inside the duct. Another tremor shook the station, the decompression accident had disrupted Sevastopol orbit and the gravity stabilizers were correcting it. The announcement voice claimed:

-" _Orbit stabilization in progress, please stand by._ "

They came out of the in a partially lit corridor. In front of them, it read STORAGE ROOM. The door opened and they entered a large room with the greenhouse supplies. Fertilizers, compressor pistols, hoses, sensors, pipes. They took some of the supplies and put inside the duffels.

-"Pipes and fertilizers, I guess I can make some bombs with those." Cameron said.

-"I'm not gonna ask where did you learn to make a bomb." Julia commented.

-"Did you forget I was military? He asked back.

-"Oh right, but better put that on paper. I want to learn that too." She said, then she added "Just in case, you know"

-"Got the pieces. Let's get back to the camp."

\- o -


	18. Chapter 17: Futile Escape

" _That's the funny thing about trying to escape. You never really can. Maybe temporarily, but not completely_ "

Jennifer L. Armentrout, _Onyx_.

 **December 3rd, 2137. Earth Central Time. Dry docks of** ** _Sevastopol_** **station.**

Richard Eisner was getting impatient, he and others were getting desperate, the only escape ship available was there literally gathering stellar dust and that bastard refused to let their families aboard and send them to safety. His wife and daughter were terrified, they have witnessed the madness at the terminal and also heard about a terrible creature lurking in the darkness of _Sevastopol_.

-"Listen Barrell, we need is get off the station until Seegson could send a rescue ship." Eisner tried to convince John Barrell to let them inside the ship.

-"We can't go far in this ship; it's just a shuttle it didn't have enough hypersleep and life support for so many." The captain told the multitude. Barrell and his crew had been on _Sevastopol_ since they had abandoned the _Solace_ back in HR683, The shuttle was currently docked on the dry dock until another ship transport them to a colony.

-"We need to get out of station, Barrell, please, open the hatch to the shuttle." One man insisted.

-"There's a killer somewhere on the station, we must get the children out" another shouted.

-"Communications are down, we can't ask for help" a woman added.

-"We can't all fit, it's not enough room for everyone." Barrell explained.

-"Staying here is an assured dead, that creature will kill us all." The first man begged.

 _Beep, beep, beep_.

A motion tracker beeped and the technician who wielded it called Eisner.

-"Eisner, I got a contact, something's coming through that vent." He exclaimed.

The other people started to become nervous, the child tightened their parent's legs and arms.

-"I'll check it" the man said, then he took a cattle prod and head for the vent.

The man opened the vent and pointed the flashlight inside. Something chirped in the dark of the air duct, the contact in the motion tracker was getting closer. The man hold the prod ready, then a rat came from the vent screeching.

-"Oh, it's just a rat," the man look away from the vent and announced to the others.

When he turned back at the vent to close it, something jumped towards his head. He fell back with his hands covering his face, the others screamed when they saw the creature firmly wrapped around his head.

-"Aaaaaaaaaghhhh" all screamed at once.

Two more of the little creatures came out from the vent, crawling at an astounding speed towards the hapless people. One of the men pulled out a pistol and fire against the nearest creature. The little monster burst into a shower of molecular acid, it corroded the floor.

-"Quick, get inside the ship!" Barrell shouted, as the same time he typed the code which opened the airlock to the shuttle.

The airlock's door opened and the people rushed inside the umbilical, meanwhile Barrell's two officers pulled out the shotguns they used as a protection from piracy and had smuggled aboard _Sevastopol_.

The last creature leaped at one of the bodyguards, he shot and the creature's blood splashed him. Two more of the spidery creatures crawled out of one of the vents near the airlock and latched on civilians trying to get inside the ship. Their friends or family dragged them inside.

Eisner pushed his wife inside the umbilical at the same time a large, greenish-black creature dropped from the ceiling, attracted by the noise of gunfire. The two officers paralyzed at the sight of the eight feet tall, eyeless monstrosity and then opened fire. Low velocity rounds impacted its armored body but only enraged the beast. It lunged against the men and tore them with its sharp claws and tail. Eisner pressed the button which sealed the umbilical and the last thing he saw before the pressure door closes was the creature piercing Barrell's torso with its tail and raising him towards its jaws.

He ran through the umbilical towards the ship and then sealed the main airlock, isolating the ship from the umbilical. He heard the muffled sound of the creature blows against the hatch. Eisner and other technician, Gruber, rushed towards the bridge and initiated the launch sequence. In the hurry from escaping, they didn't disengage the umbilical from the ship.

 _"Launch sequence initiated… Warning: The umbilical is still connected_." The automatic computer voice alerted.

-"Disconnect the umbilical!" Eisner screamed.

-"It's too late!" Gruber responded.

The shuttle thrusters flared on and the ship separated from the station, the umbilical stretched until its maximum length and then it torn. Inside the marina there was a strong, sudden air current as the room decompressed. The creature and the bodies were sucked into space before a hatch closed and air re-pressurized the room.

Warning: catastrophic decompre- The automatized voice of APOLLO was silenced midsentence by the vacuum of space.

As the ship leave the station, the broken umbilical finally disengaged and floated away, spinning out of control. Before it finally got away, one of the ends crashed into the spaceflight terminal main hatch and twisted it, destroying the main access and docking system to _Sevastopol_.

\- o -


	19. Chapter 18: Meeks

" _That's the thing about depression: A human being can survive almost anything, as long as she sees the end in sight. But depression is so insidious, and it compounds daily, that it's impossible to ever see the end._ "

Elizabeth Wurtzel, _Prozac Nation_

 **December 3rd, 2137. Earth Central Time. Temporary clinic in the** ** _Josiah Siegg_** **apartments lobby.**

Meeks woke up in the temporary clinic, he touched his head and noticed the clean bandage. The last thing he remembered was people running and nothing more. On a drawer at the side of his berth, someone had placed a jar with water and a glass, he drank and immediately felt dizzy. Slowly, he was regaining memories. The first thing which crossed his mind was the moment when he had met Foster and Marlow, a roughneck couple looking for a crew for their salvage vessel. To Meeks and his friend Heyst, Salvaging was equivalent to garbage collection, but choosing between being a garbage collector and ending his days in a dirty colony, spending his earnings in a dirty cantina, among bar fights and piss odor, Meeks have been decided the former was better.

Soon, Meeks and Heyst discovered a surrogate family along with Marlow, Foster and Lewis, with Foster as a mother figure. For that reason, when Foster died, he fell in a deep depression. Lewis and Heyst disappeared, and Marlow was arrested and now he was alone on that damned station. Lying on that hospital bed, Meeks decided to look for Foster's body and stay there.

He got up and wandered through the encampment. Dr. Lindgard was talking to another woman, Meeks recognized her. Julia, the reporter.

-"Medic supplies are dwindling, Dr. Lindgard. Someone has to go to the hospital for more." Julia said.

-"It's too dangerous, Jones. The creature is possible there, and there's the bomb." Lindgard replied.

-"We will not enter the reception area, just the dispensary. In and out, as quick as possible." Julia insisted.

-"We can't risk any more lives. If anyone has to go it's gonna be me." Lindgard said.

-"Negative doctor, you're more important here, you're medic. The people need you!" Julia exclaimed. "Just give me the access code."

-"Listen, We need weapons, as soon as Cameron finished those flamethrowers we go, not before."

-"Well, at least give us the access code. Just in case you…" She refrained from finishing the sentence.

-"In case something happens to me, good point. The code is 1702, but wait until the weapons are ready." Lindgard gave in.

Meeks memorized the code, it was too easy, he had thought getting the codes will be more complicated but reasoned more people knew the access code, easier was for any survivor get supplies in case the doctor or any of the nurses were killed.

He headed for the exit, as no one was looking at him. He called the elevator in the lobby and pressed the button for the Galleria, from there he will took a transit car to the hospital.

When the tram stopped in the SciMed tower station, Meeks was surprised to hear voices. Ahead, there was two young people vandalizing the hospital walls with paint spray. One of them saw Meeks and shouted.

-"Hey, get lost tramp."

He ignored the vandals and continued towards the primary care Unit. He doesn't know where Foster's body was but assumed it was near the surgery ward. He heard voices ahead. A group of people were setting up a camp inside the Hospital, sealing doors and gathering supplies inside the Children's ward.

-"Get away from here!" a woman shouted

-"I… I just passing through." Meeks said.

-"Well. You're already late." The woman responded, drawing a revolver at Meeks.

Meeks crossed the next door and a man closed it, he heard the sizzling of a gas torch welding the door. It doesn't matter, all Meeks wanted was to find Foster's body.

When he finally came to a door labeled EXAMINATION ROOM, he entered and saw Foster lying on the examination table, illuminated by a led lamp, she still had her eyes opened and dry blood on her mouth. The big hole on her chest and the fine vertical incision product of the autopsy were enough for Meeks, he reclined over the body and moaned. Not even Marlow was so expressive on his pain.

Meeks remembered when during a salvage mission, he and Heyst got trapped in a floating derelict.

\- o -

 **September 4th, 2131. Earth Central Time. Zavyava (Beta Virginis)**

The derelict automated mining station rotated fast around one of the gas giants of Beta Virginis. The star, 1.68 bigger than our sun, was rich in metals and heavy elements. The former mining station extracted these metals for transport to Earth where they can be used in the construction of more habitats and spacecraft. One of the multiple asteroids had hit one of the orbital stabilizers and the station was slowly falling towards Zavyava, one of the three gas giants in the system.

Henry Marlow and his crew were there to salvage some parts of the station before it crashed on the planet's atmosphere. Heyst and Meeks used plasma cutters to separate one of the components and then Foster, operating the _Bedstead_ will tow the fragment to the _Anesidora_ 's cargo hold.

-"Watch out boys, once the fragment is free, it could drift without control." Foster told them through radio "Check your safety lines."

-"Lines are secured, Foster." Heyst responded. "Don't worry mom, you will not get rid of us so easily"

-"Hell not, almost ready" Meeks said.

The torch cut the last inch of the plate and the platform fragment drifted and sinned slowly. Foster maneuvered the _Bedstead_ and using the robotic arm, grabbed one of the edges and tow it towards the _Anesidora_.

-"Marlow, open the cargo hold." Foster called. "Your order is here, Titanium and nano carbon."

-"Mmmm. Torched, just the way I liked." Marlow said.

-"Ok guys, that's it. Stand by and prepare for extraction." Foster told Heyst and Meeks.

-"We're not going anywhere." Heyst said.

They were tethered to the part of the station still orbiting, the _Anesidora_ was parked one or two klicks ahead. Meeks saw the _Bedstead_ lights coming to them. At that moment, one of the beams gave way to torsion and detached a part of the station. The fragment hit Meeks suit and punctured the oxygen tank. The air propelled the technician away but the security cable pulled again towards the station, Heyst tried to catch his friend but failed. The cable stretched again but in the opposite side, directly towards the planet below, and broke.

Meeks screamed as he was falling out of orbit and the oxygen levels dropped. He was almost unconscious and the visor of his helmet blurred when lights illuminated his face and then something grabbed him. Foster had catch him with the robotic arm of the _Bedstead_.

Once back on the ship and lying on Medical, the last thing he remembered was Foster putting an oxygen mask on his face.

\- o -

It was Foster who had saved his life then, Meeks had never been able to repay the debt, and now he never will.

The technician decided he'll spent the rest of his time there, watching over Foster as she had done back then. So he search the nearest lockers and drawer until he found an IV line and tranquilizers. On the next room he prepared a bed and reclined himself. He inserted the needle on his arm and connected the tranquilizers.

Soon, the tranquilizers began to take effect and Meeks was somnolent. He heard noises coming from inside the walls, something was closing in. Some of the lights twinkled and dust rained from ducts. The noises were like birds chirping and also, another guttural growling.

The grate at the far end of the room fell loudly and from it, a black shadow descended. He was scared but now he can't move, the only thing he could did was to watch the black, clawed hand followed by a skeletal arm extended towards the floor, then a long, eyeless head with silvery fangs appeared. The arm grabbed the edge of the vent and propelled the rest of the creature downwards.

The fairly humanoid, skeletal body uncoiled and landed on the floor with the grace of a ballerina. Finally, a long tail with a sharp barb fell from the vent. The creature growled and turned its head sideways. Meeks didn't move, in part fear but mostly due to the tranquilizers taking effect.

-"It's here!" a voice cried, followed by a shooting.

The graceful creature then turned into a feral predator as it shrieked. The creature was fast, it lunged towards the next room, likely where the man was. Meeks heard more shoots, a scream, and silence. After that the creature returned. The alien came closer to Meeks and observed the man reclined, apparently surprised by his attitude, he don't cry or run or shoot it. The creature grinned over the man and some of its saliva fell on Meeks face.

Meeks observed the eyeless face over him. He couldn't avoid remember Foster putting him the oxygen mask as the creature observed him and one of the spidery, pink-yellow creatures like the one wrapped around Foster's head crawled slowly and latched on his own face.

\- o -


	20. Chapter 19: Plowshares into Swords

" _Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong._ "

Christian versification, _Joel 3:10_

 **December 3rd, 2137. Earth Central Time, Office of Will "Chief" Porter.**

The door to the maintenance office opened and Will Porter entered, he sat on the console chair and checked new messages. There were more reports of blackouts all over the station, and some strange readings from the main reactor. Alpha and Beta cores coolant systems were working at less than 55% efficiency, which was a little bit lower than the usual 70% operation lower limit.

Also, he read a report about an altercation on the spaceflight terminal, apparently a riot due to the incapability of the marshals to solve the missing people and the android attacks situation. Porter cursed.

-"Damn, people are falling apart, like we don't have enough with this station."

He typed a few commands in the console in order to check the power delivery, a few minutes later, the computer shown no interruptions on the lines; apparently the reactor was working inside the designated parameters. " _Maybe is the computer which is failing_ " Porter thought.

Porter suspected there was nothing with the main reactor but instead, it was APOLLO the one who was failing, after all he and the androids were acting weird, Spedding haven't solved the problem yet. He typed a message on Sevastolink.

-" _We need you down in reactor maintenance, Flores. I've got reports of localized brown-outs all over the station. I know it's going to hell on-station, but I can't see anything up here that would be compromising power delivery. Can you run a full system check down there? Chief_ "

Once the message was sent, Porter walked out headed for the workshops, his shift will end soon and he wanted to make sure all were in order. Over a table he noticed sketches made on paper, he examined it something labeled EMP mine with a pen.

-"How many times I had to tell these people not to weaponize his tools?" he said to himself.

One of the engineers had made a blueprint for a device which sent an electromagnetic pulse, made from a copper wire coil, a sensor and charge packs. " _Quite impressive_ " Porter admitted, the thing could be useful for stopping a rogue Joe, but also could damage a critical system if misused.

-"The charge packs have enough power to temporarily stop a Working Joe but they're useless against those Hazard environmental models down in the reactor." Said, examining the blueprints, he was upset, but at the same time quite impressed by his engineers' inventiveness.

With the abandonment of _Sevastopol_ following the change of the flight paths, the station had become an almost lawless city, some usually peaceful people had turn into violent crackpots due to stress and isolation. Many men and women working under his orders have been turning their equipment into makeshift weapons, ranging from sharpening tools to homemade explosives; he had fired Clarke when he caught him making a makeshift bomb using pipes.

He was about to leave maintenance back to his quarters when a tall, muscular man in blue-grey coveralls entered the room, holding a maintenance jack.

-"You want to see me, Chief?" He asked.

-"Yes Flores, We need to go down to the main reactor and run a manual systems check, there are brown outs all over the station but the computer shows the reactor is fine, maybe the problem is on the computer." Porter explained.

Martin Flores was one of the most reliable engineers in Porter's team. He had priory worked for Mexcorp, a United American, and formerly Mexican shipping company. After a company restructuration he had applied for a job in Seegson, and he ended up in Sevastopol where he met Chief Porter and were good friends since then.

-"Chief, the team I sent there disappeared, did you think the Joe's had done something to them?" Flores asked him.

-"I don't know, we need to be careful. Come, take a look at this." Porter responded.

Chief show the engineer the blueprints for the EMP mine. The experienced engineer examined it and then he made some suggestions.

-"If we use some rough use capacitors we can increase the power of these things." He said and then pulled out some capacitors from his duffel bag.

-"You know I don't approve the misuse of the equipment, but if the Joe's attack us down there, we need some kind of protection. Let's make a few of these toys."

\- o -

 **December 4th, 2137. Earth Central Time, Reactor maintenance level.**

The transit car stopped with a brake screeching. Porter and Flores walked out in the dark corridors. Vapor and the dull sound of machinery filled the narrow hallways; they walked towards the maintenance control station.

-"Oh right, Flores. I'll give you access to the systems from here and you´ll run the systems check from the core. Send me a message when you're there." Porter ordered.

-"I'm on my way, Chief" and he headed for core access.

The access hatch to reactor maintenance was located near the APOLLO core, Flores needed a terminal to send a message to Chief for open the access hatch, the engineer walked into a room and wrinkled his nose, a foul, burnt hair smell filled his nostrils; there was a thick layer of smoke the air scrubbers hadn't cleaned. Flores coughed; he opened a system box and diverted power from the security cameras to air purification. The air cleaned slowly and Flores stumble on a charred body, he cursed.

-"Holy shit, what the Hell happened to him?" said, and then turned the body.

There was no ID tag, he searched it and found a wallet. Inside he saw the partially burnt photo of a woman in a suggestive pose. It had the writing "to Gregor, from Suzanne with love."

-"Gregor? Gregor Spedding? What the heck was he doing down here?" Flores said to himself.

He looked around, the air was cleaner now and Flores saw a burned working Joe in a hazmat suit which lay down, broken glass from a bottle scattered all around the floor. Flores came closer to the Joe and was about to search it, when the Joe grabbed the engineer by the ankle.

-"Got Uuu, this is a Rrestricttttted aArea U shou1dn't B h3re" the choked, metallic voice of the Joe claimed.

Flores screamed when the Joe pressed his ankle, quickly he grabbed his maintenance jack and hit the android on the head. White liquid poured from its melted plastic face.

The Joe remained motionless on the floor. Flores wiped the liquid from the maintenance jack and checked the area for more of the Joes. He sat before the console and typed a message to Chief, It would be easier if they could use the radio, but internal comms were disabled.

" _Chief, I'm heading down to reactor maintenance now as requested. I've locked the shutters behind me, the code you'll need is 6832. Flores._ "

The main access to the reactor core was closed, but Flores used an alternate conduit to reach the reactor level. On front of him there was the main reactor, a towering machine in a cavernous space flanked by the alpha and beta cores, two smaller towers, water condensed and fell like a light rain, lightning emanated from the machine. A catwalk surrounded the main reactor and the cores leading to a service elevator down to reactor maintenance.

Wandering over the catwalks, at least five Joes in their hazmat suits patrolled the area. Flores cursed.

-"This is getting funnier by the time" he said, and then he took the elevator to the catwalk level. Once there, he opened the door to the control cabin, he hoped to run diagnosis from the console, but if that didn't work, he had to take the elevator down to the core's console.

The screen shown lines and lines of numbers, on the other, Flores had to balance some values, corresponding to the output and input voltage from the reactor. It was all OK, but the temperature was a slightly higher than usual, Flores thought the main coolant conduit must be clogged and needs to be cleaned. Anyway he had to get down there.

-"How can I get to the elevator without alerting the Joes? Just one of these bastards can kill me in close quarters combat and I don't have enough of this EMP mines." He analyzed the situation, and then an idea surged.

He walked towards a nearby line of lockers, opened one and found what he wanted. A full set of hazmat suit with mask, Flores put the suit and covered his face with the mask, the Joes "eyes" weren't sophisticated and Flores hoped he can't pass for another Joe if he walked slowly and in the mechanic manners of the androids.

He stepped in the catwalk, the main reactor thundered ahead. Two Joes were checking the control console. Flores walked as mechanical as he could, the Joes always walked in a straight, rigid pace, almost as a military parade. " _The hour of truth_ " Martin thought.

The two Joes didn't reacted, they were concentrated in their labors. Flores reached the elevator at the end of the catwalk and proceeded down to reactor maintenance. When the elevator stopped and the door opened, filthy water flooded the elevator cage.

-"What the Hell?" Flores exclaimed, looking at his wet boots.

The corridor was dark, just a few dim lights were on, and Flores turned on the flashlight and saw the strangest thing he ever seen. The hallway was covered in some kind of growth, something like amber or plant sap but oily textured, dark colored. Water and some kind of jelly drop from the ceiling, he touched the jelly like substance, it itched and quickly he swipe it on his hazmat suit, it was almost like saliva. Flores pointed the flashlight few steps ahead where a strange figure was glued to the wall, it took him two seconds to recognize the shape of a human body, a man.

-"Oh my-" He exclaimed, but he couldn't finished the phrase.

The body has a hole in his chest, ribs bent outward, internal organs poured outside, and by the man's expression, Flores assumed the death was "unpleasant". He said a prayer and closed the man's eyes but was truly horrified when he realized there was more corpses there, all with the same wounds and terror expressions on their faces exposed like a macabre museum.

He slowly stepped backwards, towards the elevator, he wanted to get out as fast as possible, but then he tripped, water splashed loudly. Flores cursed, then he heard noises coming from a vent. He got up as the same time a dark greenish, bipedal creature with an elongated head and long tail came from the vent few meters down the corridor.

Martin Flores paralyzed and pressed himself against the wall. The creature moved the eyeless head around as if it was searching, growled and walked away from Flores. The Engineer waited until the creature were "looking" away and then slowly, he walked towards the elevator, trying not to splash the water.

He pushed the button and the elevators doors closed, making noise. When the door was almost shut, Flores saw he creature running and shrieking towards him, the door closed and he heard the creature's blows.

-"I need to get out this place."

The elevator stopped and Flores wanted to run, but he remembered the Joes and seemed like he left the creature behind… for now. When he passed the first group of Joes, he heard the metallic voice of one of the androids.

-" _What are you?_ " the Joe asked.

Flores thought the Joe had discovered the trick, but then he heard another.

-" _Unidentified species_ "

He turned back only to see the creature climb on the catwalk from below, his eyeless head seemed to smile Flores, completely oblivious of the androids besides it. The creature hissed, then Martin turned and tried to run, only to see another of the creatures rise ahead. He was trapped. The monster charged at him shrieking and he screamed when the monsters dragged him to the mist below. The Joes continued its job as they repeated their preprogramed phrases as nothing had happened.

-" _A Joe's work is never finished_ "

\- o -

 **December 7th, 2137. Maintenance level workshop.**

Will Porter put the welder on the floor, he admired what he had been constructing the last hour. The thing he held was heavy, and it was, because the main component was one of the rivet gun used to join steel plates of spaceship's hulls. The only difference was that Porter had added a wire coil and capacitors to the muzzle of the gun, effectively turning it into some kind of gauss rifle or rail gun, using electromagnetism to accelerate an iron bolt or rivet at astounding speed.

The reason why the strict engineer constructed the dangerous weapon was that the day before, he had finally seen the beast which had been lurking in the shadows. He was looking for Martin, who had went to reactor core and hadn't returned.

-" _This is a restricted area, please, come with me_ " a Joe in a hazmat suit said in the dark corridor.

-"You're not supposed to be here. Your duty is maintenance reactor." Porter said

-" _Core duties reassigned, Hazard containment top priority._ " The Joe responded, without stopping advancing towards Porter.

-"Hazard containment?" Porter asked, moving back, backing away from the android.

-" _We're experiencing a heightened hazard containment today._ " The Joe repeated.

He retreated to a storage area, the android still following him. On a desk were multiple tools and he still had one of the EMP mines he and Flores had constructed. He doubted the upgraded devices could destroy one of these models but at least he could distracted enough to take it down with a pipe or something. He tossed the mine, it exploded and the Joe stopped, at least momentarily.

-" _That was irresponsible. You and I will have a conversation about safety._ " The Joe said after two seconds, apparently intact, but it was enough for Porter to grab the first tool he saw in the workshop. A pneumatic rivet gun, used for repairs. He aimed at the android's head and fired. The iron rivet pierced the glass visor of the hazmat suit and one of the led eyes of the Joe, it fell backwards, but before the Joe could get up, Porter was over the android and bashed the head with the pneumatic pistol. The android was destroyed.

Porter stood there contemplating the fallen android and wiping his white fluid stained hands on his overalls when he heard noises on the adjacent corridor. Fearing it was another of the Joe's and with the rivet gun empty, he peered over the door as silent as he could.

Partially clouded by the vapor emanating from the pipes was a creature, with its back towards Porter. The creature was black-grey colored and with a humanoid body, the only difference was the long tail and elongated head, and four strange tubes protruding from its back. The creature growled and judging by the sound of its footsteps, it was heavy.

It extended its arms as it walked and Porter saw long fingers with sharp claws. He checked his weapon and doubted one of the rivets, which barely damaged one of the androids could take down such creature. He'll gonna need something more potent.

When Porter peered again to check on the creature, it had already left. Porter shut the workshop's access including the vents and began constructing the weapon he had now on his hands. He sent a message to Waits informing the creature from the terminal and now was ready to find Flores. After seeing the creature, Porter suspected the engineer was certainly dead, but he owed his friend to find him, even if he was dead. He wrote a message in case Flores was hiding somewhere.

-" _Flores, if you're still there, find somewhere safe and wait, I'm coming down to you. We need to stick together now. Sanders is dead and at least four other engineers are missing. One of those damn androids nearly took my head off, so I've scavenged some parts together to make a weapon. It's got enough kick to punch a nice clean hole in one of those bastards. I'll be there as soon as I can. Chief._ "

As he unlocked the door of the workshop, Porter heard a metallic voice and realized too late one of the androids were outside.

-" _There you are._ " The Joe said, at the same time it lunged for the Engineer.

Porter reacted and pointed the gun towards the android, but as he fired, the android threw a punch that deflected the shot, the iron bolt of the gun ripped the android's arm off.

-" _You're carrying dangerous items._ " The Joe said, and then added " _My turn now_ "

The android grabbed Porter by the overall and tossed over the room. He landed on the desk and then the Joe bashed Porter's head against the table. One powerful strike and the tough engineer was dead, the bolt gun remained on the same table, splashed with blood.

\- o -


	21. Chapter 20: Awakenings

**December 11th, 2137. Earth Central Time. Private commercial ship** ** _Torrens_** **, approaching KG-348.**

Samuels woke up, if it can be called that way, from his stand-by mode, of course he hadn't any of the illness related to cryo so he simply rose, walked front and put his ID tag in the slot as it was the most natural thing in the world. It was protocol to slid an ID tag in the machine after waking up to indicate the mainframe a crewmember or a passenger was out of cryo and now wander inside the ship, of course newer ships do this automatically but the _Torrens_ was an old ship and has many outdated systems.

Verlaine and Connors were now putting robes. Usually pilots and captains woke up first and the passengers later, but Samuels had decided to inspect the ship while Amanda and Nina sleep and then recover from the process. He watched them lay with their eyes closed, Nina looked calm, as if she was dreaming peacefully. Amanda on the other hand, moved slightly, Samuels wondered if she was having a nightmare; anyway, she'll woke soon.

-"Good morning, Captain. Connors." The android said.

-"Samuels." Verlaine responded.

-"I wish to inspect your ship, if there's no inconvenience." Samuels asked permission. "Check if all systems are OK and if we have further orders."

-"Go ahead, there are terminals in the bunk room and the mess hall." She also wanted to check any message after she'd get dressed.

Samuels headed for the bunk room and put his overalls, after that he checked on the terminal for any message he could have received. None, the only other message in shared folder was the _Torrens_ manifest. He decided to start his inspection in Medical bay, as it was the nearest room, next door to the right.

\- o -

Nina Taylor opened her hazelnut eyes and took a big gulp of air. It was her first complete aspiration after almost a month. She felt dizzy and nauseous; she hit the duro-plastic lid trying to open it, the clear lid opened slowly. Nina crept out of the berth and fell on her knees.

-"God, this is not what I signed in for." She told to herself.

She logged in on the computer and the MUTHUR interface assigned her a crewmember number. Verlaine and Connors already have 1 and 2 respectively, and she saw Samuels was already awake and he had the number 001WY indicating waking order and affiliation. MUTHUR assigned her 002WY. She put a robe and quickly head to the bunk room and get dressed. Amanda Ripley wasn't awake yet but her cryotube monitor shown she will be soon.

Nina Taylor felt hungry, after all she hadn't eat in a month, so the next logical step was to visit the mess hall. Even that protein sludge sounded good now. She saw the terminal and checked it. There was the same message from Saul with the _Nostromo_ files and one more encrypted only for her, she read it.

-"What is this?" She asked herself "An 'Asset'? And now I have to interrogate the crew who had found the flight recorder? Above all I didn't have to disclose this with any of my team?"

There were so many questions for a legal representative, if there was something important besides the flight recorder, why the black suits sent a rookie like her? If there's an important 'asset' as they called it to be secured it was logical to send a more prepared and high level team. But in her short career, Nina had learn that bureaucrats have the ability to make the most trivial things sound important. Maybe the asset was the refinery the _Nostromo_ was hauling and W-Y didn't want a ragtag crew recover a crashed pile of unrefined minerals worth a few millions of company dollars.

She felt nausea again and signed off; she sat at the table and reluctantly ate her breakfast.

\- o -

The little girl was playing among the trees, tall oaks in a small forest crossed by a narrow, shallow stream. The oaks cast a shadow that gave the grass a dark blue-green color. The girl lay and stared up to the tree tops. The frame of a geodesic dome supported a series of lights and beyond, stars.

Luna, Earth's moon, has been colonized back in 2039, becoming the first extra-planetary colony by the United Americas with two main settlements: Plymouth and Olympia. The park and the dome where the girl lived and played was located on the former.

As the girl identified some of the stars she had learned at school, a butterfly posed on her nose, she smiled and stayed completely still on fear of scaring the beautiful insect.

-"Amanda?" a voice called from beyond the trees. "Amanda?"

The little girl raised her head towards the voice, the butterfly flew away. At the line of the trees was a woman Amanda couldn't identify because the shadows that obscured her face.

-"Amanda, come in sweetheart." He insisted.

Amanda rose curious, but still cautious. She had learn at school not to talk to strangers. The woman then left the shelter of the trees and Amanda saw a face she barely remembered.

-"Mom?" she asked.

-"Yes sweetheart, come. I have to tell you something." The woman told her in a kind voice tone.

-"What is it, mom, where's my dad?" she asked her mother again.

-"Listen, Daddy left for a time, it's gonna be me and you, sweetheart."

-"Were did he go? Is he coming back soon?" she insisted.

-"I don't know, but you have me, you're my lucky star and never gonna leave you." Ellen Ripley said.

-"Cross your heart?" Amanda asked her mother, hands on her chest.

-"And hope to die" Ripley completed the phrase.

-"Mommy?" Amanda looked up to her mother's face, but suddenly, the woman wasn't her mother, and the little three year old girl had grown up to eleventh year old girl. "Mom? Where's my mom?"

-"Listen, Amanda. You need to be brave from now. Your mother-" The woman was battling with choosing the right words. "Your mother had troubles coming back to you, she's missing."

-"But... she promised me she'll be back for my birthday." Amanda cried.

-"I know sweetheart, but it wasn't her fault." The woman tried to comfort her.

-"She crossed her heart, and if she doesn't come back she'll die." Tears fell through her cheeks. The woman understood.

-"Don't worry, she will be ok, you're her lucky star after all." She said.

Amanda was surprised by the revelation. No one knew what her mother had told her the day her father left. She looked at the woman's face and saw the angular features and light brown eyes of the woman, her brown hair tied in a ponytail. The name A. Ripley written in the coverall's tag.

It was a dream. Amanda Ripley slowly opened her eyes; the clear, duro-plastic lid of her cryotube opened and she rose slowly and crept out of the berth. Many journeys have made Amanda accustomed to the symptoms after waking so she was feeling fine.

In front of her a screen with white letters over a blue background read PLEASE SIGN IN. Amanda put her tag inside the slot and the screen changed to black with white letters: A. RIPLEY. She looked around and saw the others had already left the chamber, she headed for the bunk room where she could take a bath and get dressed, then she'll look for her companions, possibly in the mess hall.

\- o -

Samuels was finishing his inspection of the Medical bay, the equipment albeit old, was in good condition. An autodoc linked with MUTHUR interface, electronic microscopes and equipment for TAC and MRI, Samuels hoped they won't need them. He heard steps in the hallway and saw Amanda Ripley through the duro-plastic window. The woman looked fine, the waking up process hadn't affected her.

-"Ah, Ripley." He greeted her.

-"Samuels, did you woke up earlier?" She asked. She must've had seen the sign up screen.

-"Well, I don't really need as much sleep as the rest of you. I was just inspecting the _Torrens_ facilities. A well maintained ship. I realize is a very similar model to-" He explained.

-"The _Nostromo_." Ripley completed the android's phrase.

-"Yes. _M_ -Class. A latter pattern, but close in spec." Samuels informed her.

-"I worked doing engineering jobs on ships like this." Ripley added.

-"Of course." Samuels already know that but didn't want to make the woman feel uncomfortable. "Is Taylor up yet? She's not a seasoned traveler. Hypersleep may have been punishing for her." That was the reason he checked the Medbay first, in case Taylor need it, Samuels priority was always with the most vulnerable.

-"Haven't seen her. I'll go check on her." Ripley offered

The woman left the medbay headed for the mess hall. Samuels finished his inspection and followed Ripley after a few seconds. He reached the mess hall as Ripley found Taylor and the two were talking.

-"Taylor. Good morning" Ripley greeted the young lawyer.

-"Ripley, it's certainly not 'good' and I'm very much doubt it's 'morning' either." Nina responded, but then she excused herself immediately. "Sorry, I feel like death. I don't know how you people put up with hypersleep regularly."

-"You get used to it." Was Ripley's response.

-"I don't do long haul very often. Most legal execs don't travel further than the coffee machine. I'm surprised W-Y felt the need to send legal at all. The loss of the _Nostromo_ and its cargo cost the Company a lot of money. It's important we find out what happened. If I can close the case with a conclusive accident report, it'll look great with my superiors."

She was thinking about interrogation and securing property, the job of a specialist or a spy, not a lawyer. Then she realized she had maybe touched a sensitive fiber and added.

-"I'm sorry, that was insensitive. I realize your mother has been missing for fifteen years and you-"

-"It's OK. We'll both get what we want, Right?" Ripley relieved her. It was the true, she had been looking for her mother all these years, unable to cope with the fact she and the rest of the crew had been declared dead. By discovering what really happened to the ship Amanda could finally accept the loss and cope with the grief, which is exactly what Samuels wanted.

-"Uh, have you seen Samuels? He's probably been up for hours." Taylor changed conversation theme.

-"I'm here, Taylor. You're recovering well and will be completely fine in an hour more or less." Samuels said, standing in the door leading to corridor four where Medbay was.

-"All personnel to the bridge. Approaching to _Sevastopol_ Station." Verlaine's voice resonated on the speakers.

Taylor stand up and the trio walked through the hallway into the Bridge. Verlaine was already waiting there and greeted them.

-"Hope you all had a restful journey." She said with a bit of sarcasm, knowing Taylor hasn't at all.

-"The _Torrens_ is in very good order for an old _M_ -Class, Captain." Samuels told Verlaine.

-"She was a wreck when I bought her. Took a few years and a lot of contracts to refit. She pays for herself now." Verlaine proudly commented. Indeed she had taken jobs nobody wanted to do but it was worth the pay.

-"You said we're approaching _Sevastopol_ station. Are we docking?" Taylor asked.

-"I believe your contact is Marshal Waits, is that right?" Verlaine responded. "I'll hail Sevastopol and arrange boarding with him." She needed to clarify if boarding was to be made by shuttle or umbilical.

-"Good, let's get this done." Taylor really wanted to get back on a planet surface, not on a spaceship or a station moving some kilometers per second around it, even if you couldn't feel the speed.

-"Don't worry, Miss Taylor. Routine. In-and-out." Verlaine calmed the nervous woman, then she address his navigation/comms officer. "Connors, how are we doing?"

-"ISMG loaded and calibrated. Approach vector locked." Connors typed on his console and informed.

-"Prep comms so I can say hello." Verlaine ordered.

-"Channel open, Captain." The man typed the command and responded.

-"Does anyone have their briefing documents?" Samuels asked Taylor and Ripley. Ripley then took a folder from the desk and read it.

-"You can watch the approach on the monitors." Verlaine told them.

The _Torrens_ approached KG-348, Sevastopol's current position was in the dark side of the planet and Zeta1 Reticuli, the local star, will rise in a few minutes.

-"Well, you have right one thing Taylor, it's not morning yet." Ripley said to Taylor. Sevastopol's orbit was deliberately made so it'll take the station a Solar day to orbit the gas giant, in order to avoid any jetlag and simulate Earth day-night cycles, if that were possible on a floating tin can.

-"Can we see it?" Samuels asked.

-"Switch to monitors." Verlaine ordered Connors

He typed and the screen changed to a view from external front camera. The station appeared on the monitor, most of the lights were off but they saw the three towers connected by transit tubes floating peacefully in the growing sunlight.

-" _Sevastopol_ station." Verlaine announced.

-"Is that damage?" Ripley noted, everyone inclined towards the monitor.

-It looks like damage." Samuels agreed, he could see the debris cloud surrounding the station. "Something must have hit the station, maybe a small asteroid", he thought.

-"Punch up 74. Tight angle." Verlaine ordered Connors to fix the camera in the station.

-"Looks like the dry dock bay is screwed." He noted.

-"I can't bring the _Torrens_ into that." Verlaine said

The dry docks were the most optimal place to dock, because it has the umbilical, and as the _Torrens_ lacked a shuttle, she must ask for transport from the station. She took the microphone and hailed.

-"This is the commercial vessel _Torrens_ out of Saint Clair, registration number MSV-7760, calling _Sevastopol_ traffic control. We're carrying three passengers on a Weyland-Yutani bond. You're holding the _Nostromo_ flight recorder unit. We request immediate permission to transfer the passengers port-side. Over."

After a few seconds of static, a voice was heard, but the transmission was filled with noise.

-"…Waits, Colonial marshal… _Sevastopol_ station… Serious situation…"

-"Hello? Marshal? M-Marshal, this is the Torrens, say again." Verlaine insisted, they received no more, only static.

\- o -


	22. Chapter 21: Desperate Times

" _I feel the kind of desperation, I think, that cancels the possibility of empathy… that makes you unkind._ "

Sue Miller, _While I was gone_.

 **December 11th, 2137, Earth Central Time. Colonial Marshal Bureau, Solomons Habitation Tower,** ** _Sevastopol_** **Station.**

Marshal Will Waits was desperate, over the past days, the creature on the loose aboard _Sevastopol_ have been slaughtering the inhabitants and last night, in less than an hour he had lost nearly all of his remaining officers: Ross, who had run AWOL; García, killed in front of Waits, and Turner, dragged through a vent. All killed while chasing the beast in maintenance levels. After that, Waits was determinate to exterminate the creature by any means necessary, he had ordered Gardiner to get to Seegson synthetics and collect a "package", more specific, the Hydrogen fuel cells the androids use for power.

The colonial Marshal were now seated on the console waiting for the report. He was wondering how to make the creature activate the trap, the last one they had set up in San Cristobal reception was still there, the creature hadn't set it up. Waits reassured this was due to the fact there was no one at the hospital. " _It needs bait_ " he thought.

He looked at the onboard clock: 730 Hours, Officer Gardiner had reported he had the explosive at seven o'clock and he had to report by now. Something bad must had happened and he had sent Ricardo to help him, the young officer was locking down the Armory and Prisoner processing to prevent looters from raiding the place looking for weapons, especially those bastards from Seegson security. Sinclair and his people had locked inside the Rec room in habitation and his goons had been shooting and looting all over the tower.

He checked the console and read the message Ricardo had informing the situation. He had found the explosive material and Gardiner was dead, Waits had ordered Ricardo to take the explosive to the Lookout in Habitation. The miniaturized hydrogen fuel cells weren't as potent as the Di-ethyl ether they had set up in the hospital, but it can cause a catastrophic decompression if placed in one of the large windows. Waits hoped to blast the beast to space with that.

He instructed Ricardo to send the confirmation receipt Waits had written on the console, the officer just need to press send and the Marshal will be warned the explosion was about to happen.

-"Ricardo, press send on this message when you've got to the area. I want a heads up before the explosives go off."

After a moment which seemed forever, Marshal Waits had received the confirmation receipt from the deputy Officer. He had planted the bomb and alerted the survivors to leave the area. Waits cursed, without any people there the creature has no motivation to be there. There was a time when Waits cared for the people living on the station, but after seeing what a lot of armed and desperate survivors did –shooting innocent people, leaving them at the hands of the creature, fighting over a food can- Waits sanity started to deteriorate.

-"This is…sel _Torrens_ out of… gistration numb… 7760, calling… three passengers… mmediate permission to transfer… portside…" an old CB radio crackled.

Waits startled. He had almost forgotten the outdated device installed in case any ship appeared, and now the _Torrens_ , the ship sent to retrieve that goddam flight recorder had finally arrived. Waits had hoped the old transmitter was enough to send a message to the ship. He picked up the microphone and talked back.

-"This is Waits, Colonial Marshal at _Sevastopol_ station. We have a serious situation here. Non-local comms are down and we need to send out an emergency message, do you read me? Repeat, our ranged communications are down and we need help. Stand by and send help."

He waited and there was only static on the radio. He tried again and didn't get a response. The console beeped and shown the confirmation message from Ricardo. The bomb was about to explode. He picked the radio again and tried to warn the _Torrens_.

-" _Torrens_ , this is Marshal Waits at _Sevastopol_ station. There's a bomb about to explode, you need to clear Sevastopol space and call for help. We are in a desperate situation. Over?"

The radio remained silence. APOLLO had blocked all radio transmission. " _That damn computer had caused only problems._ " Waits thought, and he hoped his message was heard or by the time another ship arrived there were no one alive to be rescued.

Fifteen minutes later, the station shook by the explosion, Waits slipped and fell, almost hitting his head on the desk, lights flickered.

-"Jesus Christ! That was a big one." Waits exclaimed. "It shook the entire station."

-" _Initiating Orbital correction maneuvers, please stand by._ " The automated computer voice announced after a few minutes.

The Marshal waited until the station stopped its correction. The orbit was so close and any disruption on it can cause the entire installation to fall to the gas giant below. The terminal displayed a new message from Ricardo, the man did make it.

-"Waits, we're trap down. The creature set off the explosives we set in the Habitation Tower, and I'm hearing reports of damage to the Spaceflight Terminal docks. I don't think we put a dent in it. There's activity in _San Cristobal_ , so maybe it's gone back. Find a way over the Scimed Tower transit. Hope to God the sensors in medical reception are still online."

"Damn again. What do you need to kill the goddam thing?" Waits thought, by what Ricardo reported, the Alien was expelled by the explosion but the beast had crawled by one of the transit tubes back into the Station. He took his equipment, a shotgun and his personalized .38 special gun and leave the Marshal Bureau and the people bunkered there and headed for the transit station.

What Waits and Ricardo didn't knew was there were more than one. The creature that had set the bomb was indeed floating right into KG-348, but inside the Hospital, others of the hideous beasts were after the survivors.

\- o -

 **December 11th, 2137. Earth Central Time. Chief Executive Ransome's penthouse.**

Ben Ransome looked at the destroyed android inside the living room. Two days ago, he had returned after fleeing his penthouse and being hiding on the temporary clinic, now a survivor's camp. There was no way an important executive like him had to endure such bad conditions: cramped, dirty and lacking food and meds. He had armed himself with a wrench, had stolen one of the motion trackers and then reduced the android's head to a pulp.

After that he tried to contact Gregor Speeding but there was neither response from him or Chief Porter. He then tried APOLLO from his personal terminal –the one he used to spy and to blackmail anyone- but the main computer had responded now it runs under W-Y directives and the Seegson Chief Executive didn't have the authority needed to reestablish comms.

Ransome realized the company interest was on the creature only, nothing more. Although communications were down, he wrote an angry message addressed to Weyland-Yutani directives, perhaps comms were only unavailable for the station inhabitants who are not W-Y employees.

-"This is Seegson executive Ransome, reporting in to the board. You son of a bitches. I was loyal to you and you cheap bastards left me twisting in the wind. I was going to give you the find of a lifetime. I was willing to risk my life for the company. I could have called in a special team, secured the specimen and we all would have been happy. But APOLLO has cut all communications. None of the technicians in APOLLO core are answering my messages. We're all dying here, you bastards! You threw it all away! Fuck you and fuck your company! Fuck you!"

It was a rant and he knew it, nothing of what he said had any effect on those corporate bastards, seated on their leather chairs, drinking whiskey on their offices while they send people to their deaths literally light years away. No, Ransome was a man of action, he would make sure they didn't get anything they were looking for.

Now, he was ready. He was about to slip out of his Penthouse decided to destroy any data on the creature, as the creature had proved to be difficult to dispose. Something outside called Ransome's attention. Parked beyond the spaceflight terminal was a ship! Large white letters painted on the Hull indicated the ship's name: TORRENS.

-"They're here!" Said Ransome. "I have to delete all recordings before they get them."

He grabbed the motion tracker, his high rated access tuner and one shock baton he had steal. His objective was the control console from where he would delete all servers, also he wanted to shut off the cameras and close all the station's external shutters.

Ben Ransome took his gear and felt the comfort of the Penthouse, the hallways were well lit, during the last days had been multiple power failures all over the station, but not here, not in the Executive penthouses. After a few steps, he heard noises coming from one of the vents ahead.

Quickly, he hid behind a crate and saw the creature climb down the vent. Ransome observed and he couldn't avoid to admire the way the creature descended, slowly and quietly, almost as if it didn't weigh. That changed once the creature was in the floor, it growled and walked down the corridor stomping.

-"Damn, it's here." Ben cursed.

The creature was blocking the access to the area he need to go, to the right there was the cinema. Ransome headed towards the door. Inside it was dark, the only light came from the large screen used to project films. He moved along, crouching behind the seats; Ben saw a figure reclined and recognized the man, Barker, the old bastard had his belly open and the innards dripped into the floor. The creature must have killed no more than an hour ago.

 _Beep, beep_. The tracker alerted Ransome something was coming but he hasn't heard the doors open. "A rat, maybe?" he thought, hoping it was true. Then he heard the chirping sound.

-"Shit!" Ransome exclaimed as a creature crawled towards him.

Before the creature leaped onto Ransome's face, the Executive took his maintenance jack and hit the tiny beast with a powerful blow. It crunched like an oversized cockroach and died, the acidic blood corroded the floor. Ransome examined the creature, it was the same he had taken from the _Anesidora_ and gave it to Dr. Wong in the labs to study. " _No, not the same, there are more of this fuckers, now Waits has a real problem._ " He thought.

The station shocked and Ransome hit the door frame, after that the computer voice was heard.

-"What the Hell?" Ben exclaimed "Speaking of the devil. Waits and his bombs. Bastard."

-" _Initiating Orbital correction maneuvers, please stand by._ " The automated computer voice announced after few minutes.

The maintenance jack was damaged, but for Ransome's fortune, he wasn't going to need it anymore. His office was locked but using the access tuner, Ben opened it and turned on the control console. It was easy from there to shut down all windows in habitation, especially those in the spaceflight terminal.

-"That's it, Good luck fuckers." Ransome exclaimed, satisfied those W-Y operatives were now blind and without a single bit of data. There's one more thing to do, destroy any research Lindgard still have on the Hospital. He returned to the cinema and took the keycard from Barker.

He intended to use Barker's shuttle to get to the hospital, and ran for the elevator towards the Penthouse's marina.

\- o -


	23. Chapter 22: Radio Silence

" _It's too quiet -It's the deep breath before the plunge. -I don't want to be in a battle. But waiting on the edge of one I can't escape is even worse._ "

-J.R.R. Tolkien, _Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King_.

 **December 11th, 2137. Earth Central Time. Courier ship the** ** _Torrens_** **, outside** ** _Sevastopol_** **station.**

Everyone stood in silence; the last words of Marshal Waits were 'serious situation'. What was that meant? Obviously there was some trouble with comms and the ship can't dock.

-"Damn" Verlaine exclaimed. "Connors, keep trying."

-"Channel still open, but they are not transmitting anymore." He responded.

-"Leave that way. Move the ship near the spaceflight terminal, look for an airlock."

-"Are you suggesting a space-walk?" Ripley intervened.

-"If we can get the ship close to an airlock, we can throw a line between the ship and the station." Verlaine explained.

-"It just gets better and better." Ripley said sarcastically.

Connors put the _Torrens_ parked next to an auxiliary airlock in the spaceflight terminal. The hatch seemed to be intact. Connors maneuvered the ship until the _Torrens_ main airlock matched that of the Station, then, they shot a cable between both. The harpoon stuck into the metal of the station and a winch stretched the cable.

Verlaine, Samuels, Taylor and Ripley were at the main hatch, all three passengers already have fit their compression suits, bulky, yellow space suits with spherical duro-plastic helmets. They looked like those nineteen century divers with their canvas suits and bronze helmets. Verlaine was checking each of them verifying there were no leaks or cracks in the equipment.

-"The station's comms seems pretty screwed, so I've fitted Samuels' suit with a radio booster." She informed. "I can only keep the _Torrens_ in transit for twenty four hours."

-"You'll have heard from us by then." The android replied.

The airlocks alarm sounded, Verlaine leave the chamber and the hatch closed. "Safe trip" she said before the chamber was sealed.

-"My contract doesn't cover bloody space-walks." Taylor objected.

-"It's the only option, and is perfectly safe if you do what I tell you." Ripley tried to calm down the lawyer without success. Nina breathed deeply, visibly nervous, there was a hiss as the air was sucked out of the chamber.

-"De-pressurizing." Ripley informed.

-"Oh fuck… Hating this" Taylor continued to breathe deeply.

The exterior hatch opened, they saw the cable and the far airlock from the Terminal, to their left, part of the Habitation tower shone in the now visible star.

-"Just shadow me Taylor. You too Samuels" Ripley's calm and confident voice did nothing to sooth the fears of the lawyer, who trembled between Ripley and Samuels.

-"Affirmative" The android was calm, he knew Amanda Ripley was a good engineering and a rate A in space walk, she knew what she was doing. He put one of his hands in Taylor's shoulder to comfort her.

Using the cable as a safe line, they started the trip, floating in a row, Ripley, then Taylor and Samuels at last.

-"What the Fuck had happened here?" Ripley exclaimed, after seeing the damage in the main airlock of the Terminal.

The Terminal had a semi-circle disposition, at the end of the corridor, the main airlock extended toward the docking ship, but now the umbilical was torn and they only can see twisted metal, there were little gas escaping through crevasses in the hull. The whole thing looked as if there has been an explosion, bended outwards.

-"My god, Ripley" Taylor was scared. They need to reach the airlock fast, but they were mid-trip.

-"You're doing good Tay-" Ripley said but her words were cut short.

A bright light shone in the tower, and then a huge explosion sent a big chunk of the hull outwards, directly towards them.

-"Just keep moving!" Ripley shouted.

They weren't going to make it. The spinning piece of hull was almost over them. Samuels shouted. A myriad of small metal fragments rained around them.

-"Taylor! Ripley! Hold on!"

In that moment, the chunk cut the cable and it whipped. Samuels saw Ripley grab the end of the cable on the side of the station and the woman was thrown towards the airlock. Taylor was spinning and was almost out of reach when Samuels grabbed her by the leg.

-"Got you, Taylor. Hold on to me!" He said the frightened woman. Using a carabiner, he secured Taylor's suit to his.

-Samuels! Where's Ripley?" She asked.

-"I think she'd make it to the station." They were now being dragged by the hull fragment. "We need to jump towards the station." Samuels told Taylor.

-"No! Please, Verlaine! Verlaine where are you?" Taylor was in panic, the radio crackled with static.

-"It's now or never" Samuels jumped towards the station, taking advantage of the spinning hull chunk.

They were both approaching fast to _Sevastopol_ , without means of slowing down, they saw one of the rectangular tubes connecting the station's towers. There was a maintenance airlock over the transit tube, Samuels had only one chance of grab the railing or they will bounce and thrown to outer space or worst, into the gas giant. Fortunately he made it, grabbing Taylor he walked over the tube and reached the airlock.

Once inside, he pulled down the level and the door closed, air hissed as the pressure matched interior. When the lights changed from a flashing red to green, Samuels took off his helmet and said.

-"Taylor, we made it, I think-"

It was only then when Samuels saw the hole in Taylor's suit and the congealed blood around it.

\- o -

Alarms sounded everywhere inside the _Torrens_ bridge. Verlaine typed furiously on the console trying to turn them off. Connors did the same on his station. They were watching the EVA team when a big explosion tear part of the station and sent it floating on space, directly after them. Verlaine had seen the chunk cut the cable and the part hooked to the _Torrens_ lashed on the airlock and damage it.

-"Connors, seal the main airlock! Quick!" she shouted to his officer.

-"I'm on it." The man acted quickly, this prevented a catastrophic de-compression.

-"Did they make it?" Verlaine asked, worried about her passengers.

-"I can't see, the cable broke the external camera." Connors informed. "And Radio is silent, at least we should be able to hear them."

-"Keep trying." Verlaine said.

The alarms turned off. For the moment, situation was under control, the station's fragment drifted away but remained in orbit near _Sevastopol_. Now, all what Verlaine wanted was to know if Samuels, Ripley and Taylor made it. If they died, she better say goodbye to her payment. " _Isn't time to get greedy, Diane_ " she thought, " _There's people in danger out there._ "

-"Connors, bring the _Torrens_ near the spaceflight terminal. If they're there perhaps we can sent a signal with Morse code using external search lights."

-"Good idea, Captain." He took the controls and maneuvered the ship.

Using its docking maneuvering system, Connors brought the _Torrens_ near the large windows at the terminal's departure area. Verlaine took control of the searchlights and directed them towards the station. It was dark inside and the steel frames of the windows cast shadows in the background, making difficult to Verlaine to detect any movement.

Suddenly the shutters closed one by one.

-"What the Heck?" she exclaimed, then pressed the radio again. "Marshal Waits? Are you there?" She received only static, then tried again.

-"Samuels? Are you receiving? Samuels, where are you?" she insisted. Nothing.

-"Captain, we can't see anything and we can't risk to be hit again. Next time could be worse." Connors told her.

-"You're right Connors, something's wrong here. Comms are down, but someone had seen us. Why they shut off the windows?"

-"I don't know, but we need to get out this debris field."

-"Okey, take us out. I'll keep trying to communicate with the station."

As Connors moved the ship away from the fragments, Verlaine sat on the communications console and insisted, she recorded an automatic message which repeated itself on various channels.

-"This is Verlaine on the _Torrens_ , what the hell just happened? Did any of our EVA team make it on board? Please respond, we've taken damage in the explosion and are pulling out of _Sevastopol_ space. Systems will be down while we repair. I can't say for how long, over."

\- o -

-"Oh no, Taylor" Samuels exclaimed. He leaned over the injured woman and checked the wound.

The bulky space suit prevented him from seeing the wound clearly. He need to take off the suit, something that wasn't normally easy, less with someone injured and unconscious. He took off Taylor's helmet, and the woman had fainted indeed. The next part of the suit will be a little tricky because he still can't see what was causing the injury, he assumed a metal fragment pierced the suit and Taylor's abdomen.

-"I need a tool to cut the suit." He said to himself. Samuels didn't want to leave Taylor alone, but he needed that tool. "It has to be one somewhere near" the android thought, and then after checked Taylor's vital signs and accommodate her in a comfortable position, he closed the airlock doors and explored nearby.

It was partially dark, some lights were off and others sparkled. There were loading carts and plastic wrapped boxes scattered all over the room. The place looked abandoned, and vandalized too, graffiti painted on the walls.

-"Hello? Is anybody here?" Samuels called. "Hello!" only the echo responded.

Ahead, a door opened and Samuels passed through an entrance to a tram station. Above, the board read Towerlink Transit system. In black letters over a white background and a red crescent moon Logo.

-"A station, I need to get to Medical" he said, fortunately, there were boards announcing tram destinations, but none with Medical on it, Samuels saw a map terminal and checked it. There was no need to take a train, Medical was right pass the station but he couldn't move Taylor yet, he need to patch the wound and something to move her, a stretcher of wheelchair.

-"This place is abandoned. Where's the people?" Samuels wondered why a transit station, normally a crowded place was in that state of decay and dereliction. He checked some of the boxes and found a maintenance jack, a multitask tool used by engineers, one of the ends have a sharp edge used to cut cables, maybe it was enough to cut the suit. He took it and walked back to the airlock.

Samuels used the jack and cut the suit. Once he remove it, he saw a silvery fragment piercing Taylor's abdominal zone. The fragment didn't went through the woman's body, which was good because he only needed to patch the entry wound.

-"Mmmmm" Taylor moaned, she regained consciousness slowly.

-"Taylor, don't move. You're hurt, we need to get to medical." Samuels told the woman.

She tried to get up but again, Samuels restrained her. For now, the fragment was blocking the blood, but a wrong movement would be dangerous and potentially fatal.

-"Stay here, I'll bring something to carry you to medical." Samuels said.

The android found a cargo cart and used it to carry Taylor, but he realized the cart couldn't pass beyond the station into the Hospital. To his left were the access to the trams, and in the middle of the room were some calling stations. The 22nd century equivalent of a telephonic cabin. Maybe Samuels could contact someone inside the station, Marshal Waits or, with a little luck, a medic.

The tiny video shown static but maybe the audio was functional. He pressed call and spoke looking to the calling station tiny camera:

-"Hello? Is anyone here? If anyone can hear this we need help. Repeat, we need help urgently, please respond."

He repeated the message waiting for a response.

\- o -

The static on the tiny terminal's screen gave way to a well-known woman. Amanda Ripley. The woman seemed stressed, her face pearled by sweat. Samuels assumed they were due to the incident with the spacewalk.

-"Samuels, you're alive. It's Ripley"

-"Ripley!" The android exclaimed, then turned to a barely awake Taylor. "Taylor, its Ripley! We were getting worried, W-we thought…" Samuels told Ripley through the screen.

-"I made it, where are you?" She asked.

-"We are at a transit station now. It's right by Medical." Samuels informed her, now Samuels knew Ripley was ok, she can help him.

-"Ok, Samuels listen to me, it's not safe here. Seegson's got this place locked tight. Their goddam androids are killing people."

The revelation shocked Samuels. It was practically impossible for an android to harm a human being, by action or omission. The three laws of Robotics were fundamental in their programing. Created by Isaac Asimov, those simple Science fiction rules became a reality with the development of Androids and Artificial intelligence in mid twentieth century.

-"That's impossible. It's contrary to primary synthetic programming." Samuels reassured, Ripley must've mistaken.

-"I've seen it, Samuels. I guess Seegson got a different idea about synthetics. And there's something else here. A creature, it's big and lethal." By her expression Samuels, programmed with complex psychological parameters and facial features recognition, determinate Ripley wasn't lying.

-"Ripley, slow down. A-a creature?" He asked. Too much to process, first the killer androids, now a creature. What was happening?

-"It's a lifeform. An unknown type, some kind of alien organism. It's extremely dangerous. You and Taylor need to…" Ripley was scared, and not only for herself but for her companions. But she still doesn't knew about Taylor's condition, so Samuels informed her.

-"Ripley, Taylor is hurt. She was injured by debris during the crossing."

-"How bad?" Ripley asked back, suddenly calm.

-"I can't move her, I need medical supplies. We need to treat and pack the injury." Samuels said.

-"And the _Torrens_?" Ripley continued asking. She couldn't reestablish external communications for some reason, but at least she had reactivated internal comms.

-"The radio is broken, I can't contact Verlaine. We're on our own." Bad news again.

-"Shit. Okey. I'll come to you. Keep your eyes open." Ripley said.

-"I'll send a transit car to you." Samuels told her

At least that was something the android could do without leaving Taylor behind, and with the news of killer androids and a dangerous creature running somewhere on the station, there was something Samuels didn't want. He opened the nearest transit car, pressed the start button and exit before the door closed, he heard the rumbling of the train as it went away through the transit tube.

\- o -

A few minutes later, the transit car returned. The doors opened and Amanda Ripley walked out. Samuels welcomed her.

-"Ripley. Taylor is over here." Samuels walked back towards the place when Nina was resting.

-"Ripley. Is that Ripley?" Taylor asked, she had her vision blurred by the loss of blood, so she can't see the woman clearly.

-"Try and rest, Taylor." Samuels inclined over her. Checking the metal fragment hadn't moved.

-"How is she?" Ripley asked, concerned, as an engineer and expert on spacewalk, she had seen grave injuries provoked even by the most innocuous objects. A screw traveling at orbital velocity has the same effect as a .50 Cal bullet, Taylor was lucky.

-"She needs treatment. Medical is nearby, but I didn't want to leave her."

-"I'll go and investigate. See what I can find. You stay with her." Ripley offered, then, she pulled out something of her duffel bag. An electronics repair kit. "Here, you might need this."

-"I'll try to repair the radio booster." Samuels said, taking the kit, then he added "What if this… 'Creature' shows up?"

-"Hide." Was Ripley's only response.

Suddenly, the few lights on the transit station shut off and a female computer voice announced through the speakers.

-" _Unauthorized breach detected, all transit shut down by order of APOLLO._ "

\- o -


	24. Chapter 23: Cavalry has arrived

**December 11th, 2137, Earth Central Time.** ** _San Cristobal_** **Medical Facility, SciMed Tower.**

Karen Lindgard pulled the lever and the door into the hospital opened with a hiss, the place was dark and Karen turned on her flashlight. The place wasn't the same she remembered: Overturned crates and wheelchairs scattered all the corridors, graffiti painted on the walls, gone were the white paint of the walls, polished floors and shiny stained steel tables.

The place was abandoned due to the quarantine but it seemed some of the residents must have to been raiding and living on the facility after the chaos in the Terminal nine days ago.

-"This place is a mess, I hope there's something to salvage over here." Said to himself.

Lindgard have been living in the _Josiah Siegg_ apartments in the Habitation tower, she and other survivors locked down the temporary clinic and turned it into a fortress against the terrible alien hunting them down. But, as days passed and Waits had not killed the dreadful beast, the Group's will started to fall apart. The cramped space and rancid air and the lack of food sickened the people and every day passed they needed medical supplies, so Lindgard herself offered to go to the dispensary for more, as she knew the hospital as good as the back of her hand.

-"It was supposed to be locked down, damn looters." She exclaimed. Some of her staff must have opened the lockdown for another group, those on the mall or Sinclair maybe.

She walked towards one of the clear durplastic doors at the right and entered the room. Sweeping with the flashlight she searched, a metallic box caught her attention. It was a dark blue box with a caduceus painted on it, a trauma kit.

-"Bingo" she exclaimed quietly, and took the box from the handle, but in doing so, a corpse collapsed besides of her. "Ahggg-" Lindgard cut the scream short.

She examined the body, he had his eyes open but the most terrifying feature was that the ribcage was bent outwards, like… like that woman Foster. And as with Foster, there was a trail of blood from the body to a vent.

The realization scared the woman to death, Dr. Wong, Holly, was right, the creature had been reproducing. All this time when Waits have been chasing one creature, they had wasted precious time and the creature took advantage and now they're probably infested.

Over her, on the ventilation ducts, the sound of pounding broke the silent room. Lindgard almost screamed but she silenced herself with a hand over her mouth. The creature was there, crawling in the air vents. Soon, she heard one of the grates fall and the growling of the creature in one of the corridors.

-"Damn" she moved quietly to the next room and then another, trying not making any noise and searching for signs of the creature.

She came across the restroom, from there she saw the iris of another vent which connected with another room. Lindgard crawled inside hoping the monster wasn't there and came out in the MRI room. That room was locked down because of the radiation expelled by the Scanner, the keyboard of the lock was broken so she resorted to her access tuner.

-"Good, I'm out. Where did I get more of these?" she said, touching the trauma kit in the bag.

She was about to open the door when she heard the creature's growl and got back and hide behind the MRI control console. The access door opened and the creature peered inside from the other room. Lindgard almost wet herself, but after a tense seconds the creature retreated. She waited a few more seconds and leave that room.

The rooms on that area were well lit, and Karen could see why. All over the place were bodies, on the floor and on berths. The place was used as a survivor camp but it was attacked by the creature. Near was the children's ward, the wall shone with stars and moons projected like some kind of disco sphere. There was a body there, in a pool of blood, fortunately none of the corpses were children.

-"Where are the children anyway?" she wondered. The station had two schools, one in habitation and one in the Lorenz SysTech spire, near the _Bacchus_ apartments. Only the later was operational when the disaster began.

-"Maybe I can trap that creature here" she thought, "If I initiate the emergency lockdown I can force the creature into reception. Not a big plan but better than nothing." Indeed locking down the creature was in vain if there were more of the creatures roaming around the station, and Karen felt a lot of guilt now.

She found more medi-kits scattered in the destroyed camp and then she headed for a control console to initiate the lockdown.

The nearest terminal was in a wide room with piles and piles of autodocs. Lindgard remembered being here with Marlow and Foster when they have discovered the creature inside the woman. Over the room there was a plastic window, above were another terminals when she had stored part of her investigation, both digital and printed, left behind during the evacuation. Lindgard saw a shadow moving around in that room. At first, she feared the creature were there, but she realized it was a man. A well-known man with a khaki and a brown leather jacket: Ransome.

As Karen wondered what in the Hell was Ransome doing here, she realized the bastard were searching for her files, as she saw the chief executive took one folder and putting on his bag, then he typed on the console.

-"Bastard! He's stealing my research." Exclaimed, a seconds later an idea crossed Karen's mind. "He had an escape plan!"

Why else would the guy steal Lindgard's files? They were useless while they were stuck in the station.

-"I'm not gonna let you squeeze over this. Not if you had a mean of escape, we need it too."

She typed in the console, that part of the hospital had an emergency hazard cleansing procedure, in case some pathogen or hazardous material were released, a decontamination procedure was carried out by filling corridors with inert gas. She looked up and Ransome was there, looking back at her. They exchanged glances, and as if Ransome guessed what was going to happen, he ran towards the exit.

EMERGENCY HAZARD CLEANSE? N/Y

She typed Y.

An alarm sounded and the female computer voice announced: " _Medical facility quarantine breach detected._ " After that an explosion erupted from the rooms above where Ransome was. The gas pipes had exploded by bad maintenance.

Lindgard hoped that stopped Ransome, and ran the way she came towards the elevator to upper transit, but before she boarded the elevator, she had one last thing to do.

She accesed the Terminal and recorded a log explaining the situation about the infestation and how she was forced by Ransome into not revealing nothing about the creature.

-"This is Lindgard, Senior medical officer of _Sevastopol_ station. I want to… I want to state for the record that I have been placed under duress with regards to the compromised patient zero. Ransome, Seegson's head of operations. He… He made certain threats towards my career and certification. I want that on record. But God help me, that woman needed help. I didn't know what type of parasite she had encountered, but it had planted something inside her. I am so sorry. I had no way of knowing what would happen."

She uploaded the video log and turned off the computer, then she boarded the elevator.

-"I hope the alien catch you son of a bitch" she said to Ransome as she pressed the elevator's button and the door closed.

\- o -

 **December 11th, 2137.** ** _Sevastopol_** **'s transit station,** ** _San Cristobal_** **Medical Facility, SciMed Tower.**

Samuels watched as Ripley left the transit station towards the hospital. He didn't know what he'll do in case that creature appeared, Taylor can't be moved and surely he will not leave her defenseless in the open. He walked around to find anything which can be used.

Samuels inspected again the graffiti on the walls. Painted in blue, red or yellow were phrases as "Colonial pigs", "RIP Sevastopol", "You always know a working Joe" and "Looters will be shoot". But, for the first time he realized one of the red markings he initially thought made by paint were blood. The curved, intermitent thick red line of arterial blood.

-"Were are the bodies?" the android wondered.

Samuels then checked the damaged radio booster, there was nothing wrong with it, for some reason, external comms were blocked. Amanda had unlocked the internal comms but she can't access to the main antenna. The android tried to call anyone inside the station but it seemed no one were listening. "Maybe they still think there's no radio and discarded their headsets, or worse, they're hiding from androids and that creature" He thought.

Taylor continued unconscious, life signs weak but stable. As soon as Amanda Ripley get back with a trauma kit, he can extract the metal fragment, patch the wound and move the woman to an appropriate medical unit.

Being a synthetic, Samuels was incapable of a nervous breakdown, but as Ripley need radio silence in order to hide from the creature, the only thing he could do is wait. A tremor shook the area, then the female computer voice announced.

-" _Warning, medical facility quarantine breach detected…_ "

That only made the android uneasy, there was no way if the breach was due to Ripley or the creature itself. Ripley had encountered it on the spaceflight terminal. If the creature comes, the only access was the transit tube. After a few more minutes, the radio crackled.

-"Samuels, I'm on my way" Ripley said whispering. "It's gone to hell in here, Samuels."

Samuels have no doubt of that. He hadn't seen a single person aboard besides Amanda, and all that blood and paint bode nothing good. The fastest they treat Taylor and get back to the _Torrens_ the better.

-"Samuels, I've got the meds." Ripley's voice crackled on the radio. "I found a trauma kit here, coming back to you."

The android felt relieved. A moment later he heard noises coming from the other side of the main entrance. It took a second to Samuels realize it were gunshots.

-"We're at the transit station outside the medical reception. Ripley, we heard gunshots –and if we heard them, so did the creature." Samuels informed Ripley immediately.

He received two taps in the earphone. Apparently she had heard them too and go in stealth mode again. But after a moment, Ripley said:

-"Medical reception is a no-go. I can't get out."

-"That's the only way through, Ripley. This is a public hospital. There has to be an evacuation procedure." He said.

-"I think I found it, just to need activate it." Amanda replied. "Wait a minute."

Samuels waited, the speakers and the room in general were silent. Any moment he will hear the evacuation alarm. Instead, he heard noises coming from the transit tube marked "Habitation tower". The transit tube! If it's the creature there will be nothing he could do as he was unarmed, then the Hospital's evacuation alarm sounded.

-"You're clear, Ripley. Hurry!" He said, hoping Ripley make it before the creature arrived.

The noises coming from the tube became louder, and suddenly a vent next to the access opened. From the inside, a man wearing a jacket and a cap, and another Afro-American, younger man came out, both carrying weapons.

-"Who the hell are you?" The older man asked, pointing the gun towards Samuels.

-"Don't shoot, Marshal. I'm Samuels, from the _Torrens_." He responded.

-"You're not supposed to get aboard, I was clear with that." Waits didn't look very happy to see them.

-"Your message, we didn't hear it." Samuels excused.

-"Are you alone or is there someone else?" Waits asked. The other man –the tag in his uniform read Campbell, R. –stood in silence, visibly nervous.

-"There's another one, Amanda Ripley, an engineer, she went to the hospital for medical supplies and is coming now. She had to activate the emergency evacuation procedure in order to reach Reception…" Samuels explained.

-"She did what?!" Waits exclaimed. "No, reception area is not secure! Told her not to enter that-" Waits sentence was cut short by the explosion who shook the hospital and the transit station.

-"The trap, she activated it!" Ricardo exclaimed.

-"What was that, Marshal?" Samuels asked.

-"A trap set for the creature. We put a bomb in reception meant to kill the creature, and now your friend has set it up."

-"Oh God, Ripley." Samuels said, then he spoke through the microphone "Ripley? Ripley, are you OK?" He obtained no response.

The next minutes were tense, Samuels' attention was in tending Taylor's injuries but part of his mind was out there with Amanda, the woman he wanted to heal during years and now she was maybe dead because he had sent her there. Waits was also quiet, observing how dedicated the android was, but his on his mind the only thing lingering was on killing the creature. It was an obsession only comparable to that of Captain Ahab in Moby Dick, as Waits was ready to sacrifice everything and everyone in order to kill the creature.

-"I only hope it killed that son of a bitch Alien bastard." Waits finally broke the silence.

-"That's the only thing you care, Waits? What about Ripley? Any chances she'd survived?" Samuels asked.

-"Listen, there was no one left in the hospital, that's why we put the trap there. We put it on reception because it's an open area far from any gas and oxygen pipes." Waits explained. "We have tried to kill the creature by shooting but our bullets did nothing to it and the bastard bleeds acid."

-"Acid?"

-"Yes, a though son of a bitch. We learned the bad way it is afraid of fire." Ricardo intervened. "But we have tried anything, for the last month it has reduced the station's inhabitants one by one."

-"Why didn't you sent a distress message?" Samuels asked, trying for a moment not to think about Ripley getting blown into pieces.

-"APOLLO, the central computer, shut down communications, we can't ask for help. You saw it, we can't even communicate with a ship right there."

-"Ripley had managed to reestablish the internal comms." Samuels told them.

-"Well, that's a fucking change. Lucky we hadn't thrown out these." Ricardo showed Samuels a pair of headphone set, then he turned them on.

-"The thing is, there's a ship right there and we can't communicate with them as long as external comms are off." Waits was really pissed off now. "I sent you a clear directive not to land on station."

-"I told you, we didn't hear your message. We understood you would be…" Samuels replied.

Suddenly the door opened and Ripley came in. She was dirty, with soot on his face and grease stains all over the coverall, but she seemed good, Samuels was relieved.

-"Hey" she exclaimed as Waits and Ricardo turned to her, drawing their guns.

-"Identify yourself" Waits asked.

-"Ripley, from the _Torrens_." She responded.

-"Relax, kid." Waits said to Ricardo as he lowered the weapon. Ricardo did the same.

Ripley leaned over the still unconscious Taylor and put the trauma kit on the floor. Samuels approached and opened the metallic box, determined to attend Taylor immediately.

-"What the Hell is going on here, Marshal? Where are the security forces?" she asked.

-"You're looking at them." Waits answered. Ripley got up, it was hard to believe that were only two officers left in all station. Although, seeing what that creature was capable of, it should be not surprise to her.

-"I've seen the creature. What is it?" Ripley asked.

-"I dunno. Something brought here by Marlow, the captain of the _Anesidora_." Waits responded.

-"The ship that found the flight recorder." Samuels said.

-"Is there anywhere safe left on the station? That creature's running around and Seegson synthetics are less than friendly." Ripley said.

-"Goddamn androids!" Waits exclaimed.

-"Ripley, Taylors need attention." Samuels told her. Still tending the woman.

-"Medical's a no-go. We can't take her there." Amanda responded him, she had seen multiple bodies inside the hospital and the creature had killed Kulhman right before her eyes, and he had been on a supposed secured room.

-"We have a basic life support unit back at HQ." Waits suggested.

-"Then let's go"

-"We need the transit to get to HQ, but it's down. Transit control is upstairs. Samuels said you're an engineer. Go make yourself useful, seeing as you screwed up the trap." Said told the woman.

-"Yeah, right. We talk about that later, Waits." Ripley was annoyed by the way the Marshal blame her for something she didn't know it. She was almost blown and burnt alive, not to mention tear to pieces by the creature. "You protect them while I'm gone. Understood?"

Samuels felt proud of Amanda. It was curious, that woman had needed on psychological help for years but few hours in a death or live situation hadn't made a dent in the woman's will. Waits, on the other hand, seemed to start having symptoms of sociopathy.

-"Ricardo. Get a lock on her radio so we can stay in touch." The Marshal ordered the young deputy officer.

-"Are you alright, Ripley?" Samuels asked her.

-"Peachy" she responded sarcastically.

-"We really should hurry, Taylor…" Samuels said, but the woman was already on her way upstairs.

\- o -

Finally, after a few minutes, the transit system reactivated and the computer voice announced. " _Transit system is now online. Welcome to Sevastopol station. Select your destination_ "

Ricardo helped Samuels carry Taylor aboard the transit car to Habitation Tower. They put the woman in one of the wide seats of the tram, and secured her with the belts. Waits called Ripley on radio.

-"Oh right Ripley, this is Waits. Transit is here and we're waiting on you."

-"You better take off, I had some trouble so it's gonna take me a while to get back." She responded.

-"We can wait." The marshal said.

-"Taylor can't. I can catch the next car." Ripley responded.

-"Your call." Waits then said to Ricardo. "Well, it seems that woman know what she's doing."

-"Marshal, listen." Ricardo interrupted him "Someone's coming."

-"Damn, they must be Sinclair's men, as if it weren't enough with the creature, we must deal with those murderous goons. Let's go" Waits pressed the button and the tram doors closed. Soon they were on the way to Habitation.

A few minutes later, the car arrived at its destination. Ricardo and Samuels carried Taylor while Waits guided at front. They passed the exit door and reached the Galleria lower concourse.

\- o -


	25. Chapter 24: Learning the Truth

" _I shouldn't have eavesdropped, but sometimes, that's the only way to find out the truth._ "

-Jodi Picoult, _Handle with Care_

 **December 11th, 2137. Earth Central Time. Colonial Marshal Bureau, Solomons Galleria.**

Nina Taylor was in a kind of limbo, in and out of consciousness. In one of those lucid moments she opened her eyes and saw a well illuminated area. She has been carried in a stretcher by Samuels and a black, young man.

To her right she saw big letter reading COLONIAL MARSHAL BUREAU, another man wearing a cap lead the way. Taylor vaguely remembered the voice when the man spoke, apparently he was talking to someone through radio.

-"Ripley, we're at the Marshals Bureau, just turn right at the top of the stairs, you can't miss it." The man said.

-"No welcome committee?" Ripley's voice crackled through the radio.

-"Just get up her. Waits out." The man responded.

So he is Marshal William Waits, the man whom she had to negotiate the flight recorder, she acknowledged before closing her eyes again.

She woke up again on a berth in a room inside the police station. Samuels was at her side, patching up the wound. The metal fragment was in a stainless steel tray at the side of the berth.

-"Samuels?" she asked.

-"You're OK now, Taylor, just rest. You'll be fine soon." The android responded.

Taylor reclined on the bed and relaxed. She was thinking about her orders. Secure an asset? Interrogate people? She still doesn't know what asset the Company refers to. Through the duroplastic window she saw Marshall Waits talk with the young man.

-"Ricardo, I've been checking on station's blueprints and I have a plan. Kind off. I need your help and we can use that woman, Ripley's skills." Waits told the man.

-"And what's that about?" Ricardo asked.

-"The Server farm. It can be locked down in case of piracy, we can seal the creature there." Waits explained.

-"Are you sure the lockdown will hold the creature for so long? Or the acid blood?"

-"We need to contain the creature enough to evacuate to the _Torrens_. But we also need a way to communicate with them." Waits said.

-"Ok, and what do we do next?" Ricardo asked again.

-"Go to the Systech Spire, seal the control room of the server farm. I'll send Ripley as soon as she arrive here."

Ricardo nodded and then grabbed his weapon and equipment and left the Bureau. Taylor saw Waits studying some kind of blueprints on his desk across the duroplastic window.

Nina had heard all the conversation and was wondering what the hell Waits and Ricardo were talking about. A creature? Then she barely remembered at the transit station when Samuels talked to Ripley on the vidcom terminal, Ripley had told him something about a creature.

" _The creature!_ " Taylor thought " _Is that creature the asset Mr. Conrado referred to?_ " Certainly the Company, especially the Science Division want to study any new life form, but such a dangerous creature? How in the name of God they expected Taylor secure it? Even more, she was pretty sure no one would give any information about alien beasts killing them only for some corporate suits could make a profit.

-"Calm down, calm down. Waits has a plan." A woman said.

-"A 'plan'? Really? His plans haven't done us much good so Far." One of the men gathered inside the station replied.

-"W-was that you? Did you get the transit running? Nice work." The same woman said to someone past the door.

-"How's Taylor?" Taylor heard a voice, she instantly recognized it as Ripley's, she addressed to Waits.

-"Stable, she'll be walking soon enough. Samuels is with her now." Waits greeted her.

-"Okey" Ripley, pass in front of the window, she glanced at Taylor and Samuels. Taylor raised her hand slowly and made an OK signal with her thumb. Ripley nodded and smiled.

-"You managed to get transit up and running, so I guess we're even." Waits said to Amanda, she immediately frowned. It was obvious she disliked Waits and his manners.

-"Where's Ricardo?" She asked.

-"Prepping our next move. Look, I'm busy. I've got Marlow in the cells. The lowlife who showed up with your flight recorder" Waits explained and pointed at the far edge of the room.

-"Where's Marlow's ship? The _Anesidora_?" Ripley asked.

-"He put it in a parking orbit around the Gas Giant. Son of a bitch won't give us the command codes to bring it in on auto. Maybe you can get more out of the unhelpful bastard. Go talk to him."

Waits continued examining the blueprints as Ripley headed towards Marlow's cell. " _Marlow!_ " Taylor thought " _He had the coordinates of the place where that creature came from!_ " Nina reassured she still can accomplish her mission without risking facing the creature. All she needed was the location of where the creature was found and let W-Y Science Division deal with the rest. She struggled to hear what Marlow was talking to Ripley.

\- o -

Henry Marlow was resting on the cell's bunk. For days he was pondering in how to escape and what to do about the monster which had killed his wife. He hadn't heard anything from the rest of his crew and Marlow was sure they were dead, like the rest of the inhabitants of the station whom disappeared. After he'd checked the flight recorder of the _Nostromo_ he realized those creatures were too dangerous and Ellen Ripley had made the right thing blowing the ship. He couldn't blow the station while there's still people and besides, he hadn't any of the codes for that, but maybe if he can reach the _Anesidora_ he can use it to knock the station out of orbit. " _But first things first, how did I get out of this fucking cell?_ " he thought

-"Marlow?" He heard a voice calling him through the cell's speaker.

-"Who wants to know?" Marlow seated on the bunk and saw a young brunette staring at him through the window.

-"My name's Ripley. I'm with the Company." The woman said.

By the Company, Marlow assumed the woman was talking about Weyland-Yutani, the proprietary of the _Nostromo_. He was wondering when they would arrive, but he had expected some shady, expensive suit lawyer, not a hollin and grease smeared engineer.

-"Here for your empty box already? You guys are keen, I'll give you that." He responded.

-"I'm here for personal reasons. My mother was on the _Nostromo_ when it went missing fifteen years ago."

Hearing that, Marlow instantly tied two plus two and realized he was front to front with Amanda Ripley, Amy, the daughter of Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley. The person whom the added report was addressed to.

-"You serious? Shit. Well… Shit. We never found her ship. Ripley. Just the recorder." He started to talk, interested.

-"But you sure as hell found something else. What happened out there?" Amanda questioned, obviously talking about the creature.

-"I need a way out of here Ripley. Maybe we can make a deal?" Maybe he could convince the woman to release him from the cell, after that he will put his plan in motion.

-"Just start talking. I want to know everything." was Ripley's only response.

Marlow told Amanda everything since they have landed on the moon, omitting of course its location. Then how he, Foster, Meeks and Heyst have found the Derelict and how he had deactivated the beacon, after that they had gone down to the cargo hold and Foster was impregnated. He told Ripley they had come to _Sevastopol_ looking for medical care for Foster and then all Hell set loose.

-"I want to know more. Everything, where's your ship, Marlow? If we can break the comms lockdown, what are the codes to bring it in on auto?" Ripley said after hearing the story.

Apparently Ripley was more concerned about bringing the ship and evacuate on it than contain the creature. " _Don't you understand, right? We can't let the creature escape this station_ " Marlow thought, He knew that the alien had boarded the escape ship before Amanda's mother had finally killed it.

-"If you want more, then you need to get me out of here." He said.

-"Not happening Marlow"

-"Is that right? Well, you know where I am." Marlow concluded, and then he lay down again on the cot.

\- o -


	26. Chapter 25: Winters

" _Another way to be prepared is to think negatively. Yes, I'm a great optimist. But, when trying to make a decision, I often think of the worst case scenario. I call it 'the eaten by wolves factor.' If I do something, what's the most terrible thing that could happen? Would I be eaten by wolves? One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist, is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose. There are a lot of things I don't worry about, because I have a plan in place if they do._ "

― Randy Pausch, _The Last Lecture_

 **December 11th, 2137, Project KG-348 Lobby, Lorenz SysTech spire.**

Amanda Ripley left the elevator and came in the Lobby area of Project KG-348. A well-lit area with a series of windows. She came here by Wait's instruction after the trap in the Server farm has failed.

"It wasn't my fault" Thought Ripley "I wasn't supposed to get trapped inside with the alien."

She had escaped thanks to Ricardo and now Waits had directed there for another of his insane plans. Ripley was angry indeed, but she can understand the Marshal's desperation, she wanted the creature dead for sure, just she didn't wanted getting killed in the intent.

The light of the star filtered through the windows, and in one of the sofas facing the exterior, a woman was seated, face downwards and hands finger crossed in a prayer position.

-"Hey, the creature is nearby. You need to get out of here." Amanda said.

The woman didn't responded. Ripley lowered the flamethrower and approached the woman.

-"C'mon. Go to the Marshals Bureau." Ripley begged. She had the white uniform of a medical office: a nurse, she noticed the name tag in the Woman's overalls "You'll be safe there, Winters."

But Winters seemed almost catatonic, with her gaze fixed on the windows and the star beyond. Ripley hadn't much time, she had to guide the creature to the labs and dispose it for good. Once the creature was dead, she'll return for Winters.

\- o -

 **December 7th, 2137. Earth Central Time, Tech Support offices in Lorenz SysTech spire.**

-"Hurry up! I want this place locked ASAP. Bring those provisions!" A man shouted to the group of men and woman working on the security shutters. "

-"We're doing as fast as we can, Thompson." Emily Winters replied. "Rosco and Emma are at the Bacchus apartments' kitchen. Gathering whatever Sinclair left there"

-"Don't mention that bastard again. He and his goons left us here." Thompson shouted.

Since the spaceflight terminal altercation, Seegson security personnel deserted, they took all the weapons in the Marshal office at the Lorenz Systech spire, rallied up his people –families included- and took the transit cars to the Solomons habitation tower. Threatening anyone who tried to stop them or joining them. Those left in the spire, mostly the personnel at the labs and the private wards who doesn't belong to Sinclair's group have bunkered in Tech support, an area with a narrow security system. Thompson hoped the lockdown procedures were enough to stop the creature that lurked on the vents.

After five days, the group's determination started to fail, every day the scouts had to get farther and farther from the refuge in order to find food, water or meds. Inside the Server farm, the most secure room in the area, there were no bathrooms and although the room had to stay cool because of the computers, the food start to decompose. The odor inside the shelter was becoming unbearable because they have sealed even the vents.

A shutter opened and Rosco and Emma entered carrying some food packages, another man, Doug, closed them again once they were inside. Emily helped them.

-"This is not enough, maybe for a couple days." Emily said, after seeing the packages.

-"It's all we could gather. Next time, you'll go out there." Emma protested.

-"I don't know if sealing us here is the best idea. We're trapping ourselves, even if the creature does not manage to enter, the rotten food or disease caused by the waste will kill us." Emily explained. She was a nurse in the private wards.

-"Well, we're running out of options." Rosco intervened.

-"We could go to the mall. There are people there; also Marshal Waits and his men have weapons." Emily explained.

-"Marshal Waits, Ha! He's the only culprit the situation in which we are." Emma said.

-"What about APOLLO? The androids are killing people in certain areas; we can't lift the comms lockdown." Winters continued.

-"Hughes have disappeared, he's the one who have access to Communications, I think he is on Sinclair's group." Bertram, a computer technician told her.

-"All right, the place is sealed. Get some rest guys, and good job. First shift is mine." Thompson announced. "Oh, and please, any idea on what we do with the stench?"

-"We could dump the shit and waste on the room downstairs, and seal the door." Winters opined.

-"Good, take a couple of volunteers. The rest of you, take care of your families." Thompson agreed. He headed for the nearest terminal and wrote a report, informing the rest of the group.

-"To the camp group: We can't keep up a full guard 24/7, but with the volunteer look-outs and the Spire's existing security systems we can keep it watertight. From this point onward, we don't raise the security shutters for anyone and all supply runs have to go through me. We can get through this, guys. Thompson."

Bertram, along with Carter and Lincoln carried bags and trash buckets downstairs. Lincoln opened the door and the stench penetrated the men's nostrils. There was the last of the trash accumulated to the day, rotten food, stained clothes, dirty diapers.

-"Jesus, I'm gonna puke" Bertram said, covering his mouth and nose.

-"Almost finished." Lincoln said, then he closed the door and they piled up some boxes and a lift outside. "Just one more thing"

Carter pulled a large black bag, a body bag. Someone had died the day before and they didn't the body being thrown into the garbage. They brought the body here but put him outside the improvised dumpster.

-"That's it; let's get back to the camp and rest, our shift starts in two hours" Bertram said, after that, he wrote a log's entry.

-"Don't know how much longer I can take this. It's cramped and dirty and the trash is starting to rot. I don't even know if we're really safe here. Carter and Thompson came back from their recons last week with a couple of guns, and I'm starting to see a different side to some of the people here. Maybe that woman, Winters, was right."

\- o -

Later that day, Emily Winters crossed the door and Thompson closed behind her. It was her turn to scout for food in the lobby's cafeteria; she really doubted there was anything left there. Maybe if she ventured beyond the lobby into the other areas, but it was a risk due to the increasing hysteria and hostility of the other inhabitants.

She turned on the motion tracker and checked for any contact. None, they have found four of these trackers and now two were used for scouts out, while the other two were at the camp for patrol purposes. Thompson had hoped two trackers plus the surveillance system were enough to detect the creature or any hostile Joe sneaking on the camp.

-"It has to be something useful here." Emily said quietly for herself as she checked some of the plastic wrapped crates at the cafeteria, one was labeled with the main supplier –"Bingo"

The crate contained some canned food and some cans of the Aspen beer, a brand manufactured by Weyland-Yutani, popular among crews. It was warm but she bet none of the campers will bitch about it. A beep sound in the tracker, Emily checked the green screen.

 _Beep, beep, beep_

Something approached; Emily watched the little screen and saw some points. " _More looters?_ " she though, then he grabbed the provisions and hide inside a locker. She expected to see four or five of Sinclair's men walking around with shotguns, but after a few seconds she heard pounding sounds coming through the vents.

-"It's here" she exclaimed. The white points in the tracker were heading straight to the camp, Emily saw five of these points and thought the tracker was malfunction or the station's walls interfered with the signal. She hit the device with her hand, the signal stabilized for a moment and then it showed five points again.

-"Battery must be low" She sighted "I have to warn them, but how?" She opened the locker, slipped out and then, she tracked the signal until it disappeared and hoping the creature moved away from the camp.

Speaking of batteries, she realized they'll gonna need them too, not only for the trackers, but for flashlights and access tuners. She remembered there was a storage room somewhere down the lobby and she headed there.

The place was dark, almost pitch black, something Winters didn't like it, the creature could be there, two meters away and she couldn't see it until it was over her. She gripped the motion tracker firmly and also, turned off the volume, making sure the noise beeping didn't give her away. Inside the storage room she found what she was looking for, and more: Batteries, a spare access tuner, a cell, some cables and sensors.

All useful but she needed food and meds, the tracker showed two more contacts, she hid below a table. Soon, two figures appeared at the door. Winters saw a woman and a man carrying a pistol and a motion tracker.

-"Are you sure the tuners are here, Cameron?" the woman asked.

-"Yes, there has to be one down here, if it wasn't looted yet Julia." Cameron responded "Lindgard need it to access the hospital."

-"Then we need to hurry." Julia said, as she searched inside plastic boxes.

Winters didn't know if they were hostiles, they didn't seem like one of Sinclair's group. But she wasn't sure if they will shoot at her, but as they were searching, there was only a matter of time before they found her and with no weapon and cornered, she had no options. She risked and made a noise.

-"Who's there?" Cameron turned towards the noise, pointing the gun.

-"Don't shoot. It's just me, Emily Winters." Winters said, raising a hand behind the desk.

-"Come out, slowly Winters." Cameron said. "We don't want to hurt you."

-"I'm unarmed, but please, lower your voice, the creature are near." Emily told them as she rose, palms opened to show them she was unarmed.

-"What are you doing down here?"

-"Looking for food, and some batteries. Maybe we can trade" Emily offered. "I have one access tuner, It's what you are looking for, isn't?"

-"Yes, We need meds, but the hospital is locked and we need the access tuner for it." Cameron said. "We have some supplies at a stash, and I'm looking for pieces for something I've been working on"

-"What is it?" Emily asked.

-"I call it a noise maker. It's basically a speaker with a power source designed to make a pitching noise enough to attract and distract the Joe's blocking paths." Cameron explained, and shown Winters the blueprint.

-"Okey, we have parts for that here but what we really need is food and some meds. We had a deal or not?" Winters said.

-"Deal, but you have to come with us" Julia intervened "Let's get back to the transit station."

The three took the necessary supplies and headed for the station, past the lobby. It took a few minutes for them to call a tram and then to reach the other end of the line, just outside the Galleria. Winters was not sure if trust them fully, but the woman, the reported had told her they were part of Lindgard's camp, but had a hidden stash in the galleria as a backup.

-"Here, take this" Cameron said, as he thrown it some protein bars to Winters, "There's a lot of these bars here, we can spare some"

-"Thanks" She put the bars in her pocket.

-"Got it, I finished the noise maker."

He held the device composed of two speakers connected to a battery pack and a sensor, with an old interrupter and two led lights. Cameron explained how that worked, by turning on the interrupter, the speakers will would produce a static noise that expected to attract the attention of the androids, enough to sneak out without being seen.

-"Did you think it's gonna work?" Winters asked.

-"There's only one way to find out. We need to test it." Cameron said.

They opened a vent and crawled right to the maintenance corridor. The opening was closed and Cameron pulled the handle, the heavy metal panel creaked by the lack of lubrication. A Working Joe was checking the gas valves, it turned towards the vent by the noise.

-" _What was that sound?_ " It said and after it saw the opened panel " _Hello? Who's there?_ "

Cameron activated the noisemaker and threw it to the other side of the corridor, a sharp sound surged from the device, which immediately attracted the Joe's attention.

-" _Strange_ " The Joe said.

-"See, I told you this-" Cameron didn't finish the sentence as a noise came from the ventilation above, the grate fell and between dust and water vapor, a huge black monstrous creature descended, it rose from the floor and walked towards the device, growling.

-" _What are you?_ " the Joe continued, asking the creature.

Cameron paralyzed, inside the vent, Julia and Emily asked what was happening but Cameron put a finger on his mouth, telling them to shut up. He slowly pulled the metal panel, in order to close the vent, but the squeaking attracted the monster's attention.

-"Go, go, go!" Cameron said as he closed the vent just in time.

The vent and the panel trembled due to the creature's blows. They left the vent and ran after they closed the other end's access. Before getting into their hiding place, Cameron threw a flare into another ventilation duct at the other side of the gallery, with the intention of misleading the beast. This worked as the creature descended in the Galleria and past the hideout running, got into the ventilation shaft and disappeared. The trio was frightened, Julia specially was trembling; so, this was the monster that was responsible for the disappearances?

-"How much longer do you think it takes for someone to come to rescue us?" Julia asked.

-"Dunno, The shuttles had to get back after they deliver the psychiatric patients, right? That was almost a month ago." Winters told the woman "It'll take another fucking month to them to get back!"

-"Another month! We won't last another week!" the reporter suddenly burst "The androids are chasing us and nothing to say about that creature picking us one by one"

-"Calm down, Julia" Cameron tried to calm Julia "We'll come out of this, you'll see."

-"Calm? How can I be calm! I don't want to die, I came here only because my editor thought this fucking place was boring and I needed a vacation-" She cried.

-"Hey, hey, we're not dead yet, ok? You need to be calm. What are you writing about here?" As a nurse, Winters had worked on the psychiatric ward of _San Cristobal_ , dealing with these kind of situations. Men and women suddenly falling into hysteria due to isolation, she pulled an Aspen beer from the bag and offered it to Julia.

-"I was writing about the decommissioning and its effects. But I always wanted to write novels, Tom Bradford, my editor, had told me I can´t because I'm too detached from people, not good for character development. That detachment is only useful in news reporter, because it give you an impartial point of view." Julia explained, while drinking the warm beer.

-"Maybe you should write." Emily suggested, "Not an article but what's happening here, so when we get out of here, people will know what happened."

-"Actually, that- that's a good idea." Julia agreed, she pulled out her tape recorder and started.

-"I don't know when anyone will get this, but someone needs to keep a record and I don't know... I came here a few months ago to write about the collapse of a dream, a future gone sour. For me, the people here were little more than footnotes for my article: Something to tug at the heartstrings. And when the disappearances started, oh, I was thrilled. This was something big. But now people are afraid and a communications fault means we're alone. I'm trapped here, just like everybody else. Another footnote. Another victim."

-"You're ok now, Julia?" Cameron said "We have to get back to the camp."

-"I'm ok, let's go." She agreed, but she was still trembling.

-"I'll get back to the Lorenz Systech spire. People need the food, good luck you two." Winters grabbed her bag and headed for the exit.

Emily headed back to the transit station while Julia and Cameron took an elevator up to the Apartments.

\- o -


	27. Chapter 26: Underworld

" _As Inanna ascended from the underworld, the galla, the demons of the underworld, clung to her side. The galla were demons who know no food, who know no drink, Who eat no offerings, who drink no libations, Who accept no gifts. They enjoy no lovemaking- They have no sweet children to kiss. They tear the wife from the husband's arms, they tear the child from the father's knees, and they steal the bride from her marriage home..._ "

 _The descent of Innana_

 **December 8th, 2137. Earth Central Time, Survivor's camp at the Server Farm.**

Rosco patrolled the area with the motion tracker, also he had an old walkie-talkie, not the best communications device but functional at short distances inside the station. The thick walls of the server farm formed a Faraday cage which interfered with radio signals but as far as they used them inside there was no problem.

-"Bertram, I got a signal. Near the lobby" He informed Bertram, at surveillance.

-"Let me check, if it's Winters coming back, Thompson must open the door for her." Bertram responded.

-"Odd, tracker shown multiple contacts" Rosco said "Are you sure these things can detect anything outside the Faraday cage?"

-"They´re designed that way. If it can detect a rat inside the vents, it can track a large creature or a human being." Bertram responded "I don't have anything on video."

-"Keep checking, I lost it." Rosco said. "Thompson, did you copy?"

-"I'm here" Thompson responded "Too soon for Emily to come back, stay alert."

-"I don't like this, man" Bertram said, his voice tone was of concern.

-"Thompson, it's Doug. I'm picking up a signal inside the perimeter" the other lookout called from the other side of the camp.

-"Can't be, we've sealed all access. Liam, Emma, grab the weapons; meet me at the Server farm. Rosco, get back here" Thompson ordered.

Rosco rushed back inside the Server farm, revolver in hand. Thompson and the others were there already, forming a circle around the frightened citizens whom didn't carried weapons. Doug had the tracker on hand, still checking the signals.

-"Multiple signals, twenty meters and closing" Doug informed.

-"Multiple? It can't be the creature." Thompson said. "And how it broke through the blockade?"

-"I dunno, maybe they're looters. Opened a vent and want to catch us by surprise" Rosco said.

-"Well, let's give them a welcome party" Bertram cocked his gun.

-"This is insane, we should be united, not fighting each other for scraps" Emma said.

-"You saw what happened at the Terminal, what a little panic can do" Rosco responded.

-"Five meters, people. They're here" Doug was frightened, his eyes were like plates and the man was sweating.

-"C'mon Sinclair, this is not funny. Get out of that vent and talk, you asshole!" Thompson shouted.

-"Signal disappeared, What the Fuck, man?" Doug exclaimed.

He lowered the motion tracker and was about to check the batteries when a big shadow descended from the ventilation shaft behind him. Doug turned back and saw the creature lunge at him throwing a frightening growl. Before the man or the others raised they weapons, the alien pierced him in the abdomen with its tail. Suddenly everyone was screaming. Thompson, Bertram and Liam fired at the creature still holding Doug's body.

The low velocity bullets didn't have any effect on the creature. It swept its tail, throwing the body and with the same impulse, it cut Liam in two. Then grabbed a terrorized Bertram and jumped inside the vent again, the circle tightened and few more seconds they saw the creature emerge from a vent on the wall.

-"There!" Thompson opened fire again. It grabbed the nearest resident and drag her into the vent. "The son of a bitch is taking us one by one!"

A ceiling tile fell as one of the creatures jumped into the room. Again the bullets impacted it and the blood splashed on one of the civilians covering near it, the creature escaped. Not for long, it came crawling on the wall and grabbed Thompson, the man fired but was useless, the creature stung him and soon, the man disappeared inside the vent.

Rosco and Emma ran for the exit, the door was locked. The same bunker made to protect them became a deadly trap. Emma pulled her access tuner and tried to unlock the door, meanwhile Rosco watched, he heard the screams and growls from the server room. Between them, a Creature jumped, it went straight for Emma, Rosco was behind it and the man paralyzed with terror against the wall. Emma, she collapsed like a frightened animal as the beast slowly approached, as if the creature knew she would not defend himself.

-"Rosco, help me! Please!" she called, but Rosco was terrorized.

The creature brought its eyeless head to Emma's face as the woman can't stop sobbing and calling for Rosco's help, it seemed curious at the reaction of its prey, or maybe it just enjoyed the fear. Finally satisfied, the creature stung Emma with its tail and grabbed the woman back to the hive in the bowels of the station, leaving a traumatized Rosco behind.

\- o –

Emily Winters consulted his watch. It was December 9th, 2137. Almost a day have passed since she left the camp for scavenge and now she had returned. The door closed, she called but there was no response from the lookouts or Thompson, something wasn't right. She used an access tuner and entered. The place was completely destroyed, server machines toppled, blood stains covered the walls, walking deeper inside, she stumbled with half body, and she recognized the horror expression in Liam's face. She found a few other corpses, Doug, Eric; the others had disappeared.

-"Oh no, What the Hell happened here?" Winters wondered "The creature must have come here after we encounter it in the Galleria." She observed the fallen grates from the vents.

After all preparations, sealing doors and vents, and they forget the air ducts overhead. She took the identification tags and put them inside her bag. She noted a blinking light on one of the terminals. A text message, there was a message from Rosco there, she read.

-"It took her and I couldn't do a thing stop it. First it tore through Doug. Then it cut Liam in half and threw him aside like a rag doll. Then it cornered Emma. I was in the shadows and it didn't see me. Emma was calling for mew — calling for help, but I couldn't move. I was too scared. I let it take her, but I'm going to find her. If you find this, arm yourself."

Winters deduced it could be survivors and they're either hiding, or like Rosco, crazy enough to follow the creature and try to rescue Emma. Emily wrote another entry for those whom could still be there.

-"I need some rest" she said to herself, "Maybe one hour or two, I really doubt the creature came back here for a while" and then she lied in a niche formed by a toppled server. One hour later, she grabbed whatever was left in the camp and she headed back for the Galleria hideout, intending to join with Cameron and Julia's group.

The transit car arrived and Winters pressed the button, a few minutes later, she arrived at the Solomons galleria station, she raced to Gillen's bar as far and silent as she could. Julia and Cameron weren't there. She had to find them; they said they were at the apartments so Emily headed for the elevators.

-"Hey you! Get out of here" A voice called. Emily turned and saw a man calling her from a closed shutter.

-"Shhh, please. Can you help me?" She said.

-"Get lost, we don't like looters" the man continued.

-"I'm not a looter, I'm a nurse. My camp was destroyed. My name is Winters" Emily clarified. The man considered for two seconds, then.

-"I'm Blyth, Maybe you can help us after all, we need a doctor."

-"I'm just a nurse, but sure, let me in" Winters agreed.

-"Not so fast, first, you have to do something for me before." Blyth said.

-"And what would be?" Winters asked back.

-"There are some of the automated janitors robots still roaming around the concourse, turn them off." Blyth explained. "The fucking robots open a way inside the camp each time they go into their duties. Shut them off and I'll let you in."

She found three of the automated robots and turned them off, only then Blyth let her in. Once in the camp, Winters learned almost all medic personnel have been abducted or killed, that was the reason they desperately needed a doctor, otherwise they wouldn't admitted her in the camp. She treated injuries ranging from cuts and concoctions to a gunshot. Looters were more paranoid every day, and the man said it were Sinclair's men those who shoot him.

After one day in the camp, she started to see a pattern. The food was scarce, the place stank of rotten garbage, and the survivors were more paranoid every day. Besides, the night before, Marshal Waits and his men followed a trace on the creature and hours later, only Waits had returned, the creature had killed them all. The people there were losing their fate in Waits' ability to kill the creature. She re-read her log entry.

-"I have been camped out in Galleria Mall for maybe twenty-four hours. The people here, they are scared, but they still believe that Marshal Waits will kill the creature. They forget other dangers. They forget themselves. People are turning on each other for food, for water. I cannot stay here."

-"It seems is safer to be alone" She said to herself, heading back to the transit station. She hadn't a plan now, but the Private wards and Bacchus apartments at Systech spire were his home, or maybe took an elevator and join Lindgard's camp.

At the transit station, she checked again the motion tracker. The place was deserted and dark, she was about to call the car towards the Habitation tower when a warning light turned on in the Engineering line, a car was coming from there. She hid and when the car stopped, she saw a dirty man came out, she recognized him: Rosco.

-"Rosco. Rosco, over here" Emily called him. "I read your message, where you had been?"

-"Winters?" the man looked confused "I… I was looking for Emma; I followed the creature into the vents"

-"Calm down, Rosco." Emily put her hand over his shoulder "Where's Emma, did you found her? Is anyone else alive?"

-"I don't know. I was following the blood trail inside the vent, and then something attacked me. Not the creature, something else, small" Rosco grabbed his head, closing his eyes, as if he had a migraine, and coughed. "I just remember waking up inside the vent hours later and there was a strange creature dead"

-"A creature?" She asked.

-"It was horrible, some kind of oversized scorpion." Rosco told her.

-"Its fine, Rosco. I'm heading for the Galleria, there's a survivor's camp there. We can stay there, come." Winters told the man.

-"I don't feel so good, need to puke." The man said, "Wait me here, I'm going to the bathroom." He walked towards the door marked with the symbol of a stick man, Emily followed him.

Winters waited. Poor man had been lucky but he clearly had survivor's guilt over the loss of Emma, maybe Lindgard would help him. At that moment, screams broke the silence in the cavernous station; they came from inside the bathroom. Winters ran and when she arrived, she watched Rosco lying on the floor, over a puddle of blood. Winters almost screamed when she saw the hole in the man's chest, ribs bent outwards. A tiny head followed by a serpentine body erupted from the wound, leaving a trail of blood from the body to a ventilation shaft.

-"Oh no, Rosco" Winters exclaimed. "That creature! How can it-?" Winters now realized how the creature could attack in different places so quickly. It assaulted the camp at the server farm almost and almost immediately it has appeared in the maintenance corridor at the Galleria. " _It isn't fast, there's more than one_ " Winters thought " _All the missing people!_ "

Horrified by the revelation, she puked. Now her only objective would be staying alive and if possible, escape the station, though no ships were available at the moment. Suddenly, she heard a chirping sound coming from the vent. " _A rat, maybe?_ " She thought.

An eight legged, long tailed pink-yellow creature leaped out from the vent. Winters screamed, that must be one of the creatures who had attacked Rosco. She tried to run but she slipped on the wet floor. She watched in horror as the creature crawled towards her and she raised her arms. She grabbed the creature but its long tail coiled around her neck and she lost consciousness from the lack of air. The creature wrapped its legs around her face and Winters fainted.

Emily woke up hours later, coughing. The creature was lying dead besides her, its legs curled. Her throat burned, and she felt a slight pressure in his chest. Emily consulted her watch. November 11th, morning. " _I've been unconscious almost twelve hours_ " she thought, and then remembered what happened to Rosco, whose body were at the far end of the room.

Emily Winters realized those little creatures were first stage monsters, planting an embryo like some kind of parasites. The creature which burst from Rosco's chest was a small version of the black monstrosity which lurked in the shadows, and now she had one too. Every hope of survival and getting back to Earth with her family vanished in a second, she cried.

The only option now was to end her life before the creature inside her burst, end her own in her own terms, but as she lacked the proper means, no sedatives and no weapons, she had one last idea. Back at the Galleria camp she learned Sinclair's group had been shooting people, maybe they can do the job and killed her, it will be quick and relative painless. Seegson security were bunkered somewhere up the same tower, she took the elevator, time was running out.

The forklift climbed out as the guard pressed the button. Outside the station's Rec room, Sinclair's men had sealed the two doors by welding steel bars. They didn't risk putting braces anyone could open. The only access now was the door in which the forklift sealed with heavy steel boxes as a bank vault armored door. The rest of the doors, vents and pipes were already sealed. Indeed, the Seegson security guys had turn the area into a bank vault. As Wi9nters arrived their people had entered and now only Sinclair and one of the guards were ready to seal the place.

-"Hey guys" Winters hailed. They immediately raised their weapons.

-"Stop right there, girl" Sinclair said. "The place is already taken"

-"I can see that" Winters said

-"Then get lost" Sinclair continued "Unless you bring something, you have to go"

-"I don't have anything at all. I have lost it all" Winters told them, extending her arms and throw them the empty bag.

-"We don't have a place for you then. We're closing the store, I didn't even want to shoot you and waste one precious bullet, they're scarce, you know?" Sinclair said as the guard entered, still pointing at Winters.

Sinclair pressed the button and the forklift start to descent. The door finally closed and Winters was left alone at the entrance. The motion tracker beeped and Emily saw multiple contacts there, slowly approaching. She remembered the same thing happened right before her camp was attacked. The creatures were about to strike. Emily walked towards the door and banged, trying to warn the people there. She heard voices, Sinclair's group were formed not only by security guards but by families, pounding noises came from below, the creatures must been crawling inside the vents under the floor. She ran, wishing all the firepower they had would protect the women and children inside, but knowing with certainty that they would not.

Time had runs out for all of them; the only thing she could do is write a final log and find a good place to die, the labs lobby had a wonderful sight of the planet and its moons. She headed there feeling an increasing oppression in the chest.

" _I got here when they were sealing the sanctuary. I don't know what I expected maybe that they'd change their minds and let me in, maybe that they'd shoot me dead like everyone else on the station who gets in their way. They shut the door in my face. I can hear movements from the floor below me. I haven't got long. Sinclair and his people have Sevastopol's food supplies and much of its weaponry, but I heard the voices of children too. I'd wondered where the children had gone. Maybe they can keep these monsters from them. I hope they do._ "

\- o –

 **December 11th, 2137. Earth Central Time. Gemini Exoplanet Solutions lobby.**

The woman called Ripley left the lobby and continued her way. Winters looked at the empty medikit she had thrown. She picked it and an idea surged. The pain in her chest increased beyond tolerable levels. She prepared the needle and injected herself the air in the jugular artery. Death was almost instantaneous, her body fell on one of the couches, and after few seconds, her body convulsed and another of the tiny monsters erupted from her dead chest.


	28. Chapter 27: Prison Break

**CHAPTER 24: PRISON BREAK**

 **December 11th, Earth Central Time. Marshal Bureau office, Solomons Galleria.**

Nina Taylor heard Ripley cut down her conversation with Marlow, apparently the guy wasn´t willing to let another word about the creature or the ship. The radio crackled and Ricardo informed something about his sensors lighted as a Christmas tree and Amanda told Waits she wanted to be in. After exchanging a few words, Amanda Ripley left the Bureau carrying a makeshift flamethrower.

-"What was that about, Waits?" Taylor asked the marshal.

-"Miss Taylor, I see you are OK now." Waits responded "Well, Ripley offered herself to trap the creature. We had a trap set up in the Lorenz Systech spire."

-"And Samuels?" she asked again.

-"He's heading for APOLLO's core, once the creature's trapped, he'll lift the comms lockdown."

-"I hope you're right." She told him.

-"Don't worry miss Taylor, just sit down and enjoy the show." Waits waved his hand without looking away from the console.

Taylor saw other people gathered there, some men and a woman sitting on the benches. They didn't look like cops despite they were wearing Marshal's caps and jackets. Nina still needed to figure out how to secure the creature or the data for the Science Division; maybe she could ask them discreetly.

-"Hello, Are you marshals too?" she began.

-"Do I look like a cop? No, clean clothes are a luxury now miss, so we take what we have." A tall man responded.

-"Where are the rest of the Marshalls?" Taylor insisted.

-"Gone, Waits and four of them went to Engineering, trying to kill that creature. Only Waits returned, the creature killed them all." The woman said.

-"This creature, what is it?" Good, they had brought up the subject that interested her, so Taylor continued. "Have you seen it?"

-"Obviously we hadn't seen it, we're still alive." The woman continued.

-"Any chances Waits' plan to capture the creature will work? Taylor asked.

-"Till now, none had worked. That creature is a perfect killing machine and I doubt we can be able to trap it. It's better to kill that creature." The other man intervened "But I dunno how? They had shot it, set it on fire, planted bombs, nothing had worked."

Taylor fell silent, realizing the true interest the company could have in the creature, a perfect killing machine, maybe too perfect. Nina wondered how the company pretended to control such a force of nature, but as they were aware of that creature since the _Nostromo_ incident, she supposed they have means to do it, all she need was the data and let Conrado and his people do the rest.

She heard Waits curse inside his control booth. The plan had got wrong, for what she heard, Ripley got trapped with the creature and Ricardo opened the cage to let her out, but the creature escaped too. Waits was furious, he hit the console with his fists and then scolded Ricardo, a moment later, she spoke to Ripley again and told her to take an elevator into something called Project KG-348.

" _Now, what will I do? These people are too scared and none of them knows anything about_ " Nina thought " _And the few who really know a damn thing aren't gonna say anything_."

Taylor realized she had to interrogate Marlow, but she doubt he would tell her what she wanted unless she worked him. " _I need a recorder_ " she thought, and then she searched around, maybe in one of the offices she can find one. There was a little office near the main entrance, the door wasn´t locked and Nina entered it, there as a circular table and shelves full of scraps and equipment. A yellow tape recorder was over the table, Taylor examined it and found a tape inside, and it had a recording. Nina played it, and the voice of a man talked:

" _Waits, we should talk about what happened in San Cristobal. Now, it was a nasty business and I understand that you want to deal with it as quietly and quickly as possible, but I wanted to make sure you didn't do anything rash. I'm talking about catching the specimen without killing it. If we play it smart, we could be set up for life. I have the connections, Waits. I can set it up. You're getting old, Waits, you can't do this forever and what are you going to do when Sevastopol closes? You have my number. Ransome out._ "

Taylor was shocked; apparently there were more people interested in the creature besides W-Y, who were these connections Ransome was talking about? Nina had no way of knowing that the chief administrator was behind the same objective for which they sent her, to secure the specimen for Weyland-Yutani science division. Taylor cursed, now she had to hurry, she searched inside the containers and found a new tape and recorder, she took them and headed for Marlow's cell. On the way, she heard Ripley on radio.

-"Hello? Hello? Can anyone hear me?" Ripley's voice crackled, she cough.

-"Ripley? Is that you?" Waits answered from inside the booth.

-"Yes Waits. Me. You son of a bitch. You blew the lab into space and—" Ripley sounded furious, almost if she was crying.

-"I had no choice. No choice at all! You saw that thing! You saw what it could do! I had to get it off the station! By any means necessary" Waits excused himself, something Ripley didn't took so well. " _Yeah, I'll be pissed off too if someone tried to kill me_ " Taylor thought.

-"Yeah. Use me as bait. Leave me to die." Ripley responded.

-"And it goddam worked, Ripley. It goddam worked. I got that thing. Jettisoned into the gas giant. The station's safe"

-"There's that, and there's the fact you're a heartless bastard. I'm heading back to the Bureau. We can discuss your methods there. Ripley out."

The station was safe, and so was Amanda. Soon she'll return to the Bureau, Samuels will lift the lockdown and they all will evacuate in the _Torrens_ back to Porrima. Conrado will have his data and all this nightmare will be over. But first, Taylor needs to interrogate Marlow before her companions were back, so they can't suspect about her mission.

Taylor stood outside the cell and pressed the talk button.

\- o -

For the second time in the day, Henry Marlow saw a stranger outside his cell, this time a fairly young woman in glasses, wearing a white overall with her short black hair tied in a ponytail. She carried a yellow tape recorder; she pressed the talking button of the cell and addressed him.

-"You're Marlow, right?" The woman asked.

-"Yeah." Marlow answered with some apathy.

-"I'm Taylor, Sector exec, Weyland-Yutani." Taylor introduced herself.

-"Oh, the big guns now, huh? Not some girl with abandonment issues." Marlow replied more sarcastically than impressed.

-"Leave Ripley out of this. She's just looking for closure. I'm looking after Weyland-Yutani interests." Taylor didn't like the way Marlow called Ripley. They weren't friends but after all the woman had done for her, getting the trauma kit, she deserved some respect.

-"And I'm looking to get out of this fucking cell. Maybe we can do a deal?" Marlow got to the point.

Behind Taylor, Marshal Waits cursed. It seemed that things never got better no matter what they did. Taylor turned towards the control both, Marlow stared there too but he can barely hear what was going on.

-"Damm it I don't know. I'm trying to contact Samuels. Maybe he knows what the hell APOLLO is playing at" Waits cried.

-"Waits. For God's sake, APOLLO's let the androids off the leash. They're attacking at sight." Ripley's voice sounded distressed.

-"I don't know what the hell this is. They're not just responding to trespass violations. It's like they're… hunting" Waits responded as he was looking over the monitors. Taylor turned his attention towards Marlow again.

-"Maybe. This is being recorded, you understand?"

-"I saw, red light is on." Marlow said, pointing the bright red light in the recorder.

-"I want data, the location of the planetoid where you found the derelict. All data you have on the origin of the organism." Taylor continued.

It took Marlow some minutes to consider it. Obviously the company wanted the creature, but how the Hell they know that beast came from a derelict ship? Unless of course they knew that from the very beginning, since the _Nostromo_ 's crew have landed there and subsequently the ship was destroyed by Ellen Ripley, the only survivor.

" _They know about the ship and its contents, but they didn't know the exact location_ " Marlow thought " _As I had turned off the beacon, I'm the only one who knows where it is, but they didn't know the eruption had destroyed the ship. Or didn't? Fuck_ "

Marlow realized he had to play his cards well, the creature was destroyed moments ago by Amanda Ripley, he had heard Waits rejoiced. This girl can get him out, and then he could go back to the planetoid and make sure that the ship and its contents had been destroyed. I would not rest until I saw that what happened to Foster didn't happen to anyone else.

-"I can give you that and a way off this station. You just have to let me out."

-"I can probably agree to those terms– What the fuck?"

Taylor turned backwards, something had attracted her attention. Marlow heard voices, metallic voices. A group of Working Joe's had burst into the Bureau using one of the access to the maintenance corridors.

-"Waits? I've got some security shutters in my way. Can you open them? Waits?" Through radio, Amanda called.

She was outside the Bureau but the security shutters were down. Waits were headed for the shutters control, when a Joe grabbed him by the jacket. The rest of the androids were strangling the people at reception.

-"You bastards! You murdering bastards! Leave them alone! Stand down!" Waits cried at the same time he punched and pushed the Joe. Waits tried to pull his revolver but the Joe was faster.

-" _You really shouldn't be here_ " The Joe repeated, then grabbed the Marshal by the neck " _You're becoming hysterical_ "

-"You bastards-" Waits choked. The Joe then bashed his head against the wall; the blood formed a splash pattern and scurried to the floor, next to the inert body of Waits. Taylor, horrified, ran and hid.

-"Taylor! Taylor? Get me out of this cell! Right now! Get me out!" Marlow saw her disappear and cursed, at least the little bitch could have opened the cell before fleeing.

Marlow pounded the door from the inside, the Joe's have done with the survivors and soon they will come for him. Nina Taylor returned, she typed a code in the cell's keypad and the door opened. Marlow was about to scold Taylor for abandon him but she said.

-"Sorry, but I needed the code, and this." She handled Marlow a gun "I don't know how to use it. We have a deal now? Get me off the station and give me that data."

-" _Helping a convict to escape? This is a felony and a break to security directives_ " A Joe said, and when it noticed the weapon in Marlow's hand, he continued " _Firearms can cause serious injury._ "

-"Oh, I assure you they can, plastic face." Marlow shoot point range at the Joe's face. "C'mon, let's get out here."

Marlow grabbed Taylor's arm and ran for the office where the Joe's had entered. Taylor tripped and the recorder fell from her hands, she tried to pick it but Marlow pulled, the rest of the Joe's were almost over them.

-"Wait, I need it!" She exclaimed.

-"No time, sweetheart!" Marlow continued running, the door closed behind them; give them a few seconds ahead the pursuing androids, just the time enough to make it to another access to the Galleria.

\- o -

Inside the Bureau, Ricardo found the strangled bodies of his fellow survivors and the corpse of Waits, covered in blood. He sat on the reception area and put his hands over his head, Time had ran out for all of them. A few minutes later, Amanda Ripley arrived.


	29. Chapter 28: Logic Loop

" _The larger point of the report is that bots can be pretty decent negotiators –They even use strategies like feigning interest in something valueless._ "

-Adrienne LaFrance, An artificial intelligence developed its own non-human language.

 **December 11th, 2137. Earth Central Time, Colonial Marshal Bureau.**

Taylor was fine now, but resting. Amanda Ripley was talking with someone inside the cell at the far side of the Bureau; Samuels assumed it was Marlow, the man who retrieved the flight recorder. He couldn't hear what Marlow was saying to Amanda. Outside the medical unit, Marshal Waits checked on some kind of blueprints, Samuels left medical and asked the old police officer.

-"Marshal, May I ask what's the next move?"

-"We need extraction, but we can't contact with the _Torrens_ so what we are going to do is trap the creature. That'll give us some time to lift the lockdown." The Marshal responded.

-"How can I help?" the android offered.

-"As soon as the creature is trapped, I need you in APOLLO's main interaction room; the access is trough Seegson synthetics. Convince him to lift the Communications blockade." Waits explained. "The place is full of Joe's; you are a Synth so it'll be easier for you."

-"I guess so, Marshal." Samuels responded.

-"Take a transit car back to the SciMed tower, and then get to Android Processing."

-"How'd you plan to trap the creature?"

-"The server farm, it's secure against any piracy or sabotage. With a little luck it'll contain the creature enough to evacuate the station."

Waits really hoped his plan worked but his optimism was running low. That's why the Marshal had a plan B; that was the reason he had been checking on the blueprints of Project KG-348 detachable labs. Just in case.

-"Take care of Taylor and Ripley while I'm out." Samuels responded while walking towards the exit.

-"Oh, I will." Waits grimly answered.

\- o –

 **December 11th, 2137. Earth Central Time. Outside reformatting chamber, Android Processing.**

Samuels turned back and saw the inert pile of Working Joe's on the corridor. He had tried for the past hour to reason with each one of the androids and every time he had obtained the same response, followed by attempts to damage him. Worst, after a few attempts APOLLO had locked down the access to its core and the interaction room.

-"Waits, APOLLO had locked the access, I can't reach the interaction room." Samuels informed.

-"Samuels, the creature is dead." Waits responded, but then he added. "Ripley did it; the creature is no longer on the station."

-"That's a good thing, where's she now? Is she OK?" Samuels asked.

-"Wait, something is happening… No… that's not right…" The Marshal said.

Samuels noticed Waits evasive response, but also the worry on the Marshal's voice tone. Something had happened. Before he could ask for more, the Working Joes start mentioning something about Containment Hazard alert raised to Omega.

He wanted to know how Ripley had disposed the creature but Waits didn't response, he tried with Ricardo.

-"Ricardo, come in. What's happening? How's Ripley and Taylor." He asked.

-"Samuels, Taylor is back in the Bureau. I'm going back there… Ripley… I'm afraid we lost Ripley." Ricardo said.

-"What!? How can she…?" Samuels exclaimed, for an android he was really upset.

-"We had trapped the alien inside the server farm, but Ripley got trapped inside too, I opened the door for her and the creature escaped. Waits was furious, but then he directed Ripley to the labs. The plan was to blown off the detachable lab with the creature inside, but Waits pressed the button before Ripley got out." Ricardo explained the situation.

-"Oh no, Ripley" Samuels lamented, "What's wrong with Waits?"

-"Listen, the man had been under pressure since all this mess started, and I'm afraid he had lost his sanity. I'm gonna talk with him once I'll back at the Bureau. But, first we must lift the lockdown."

-"I'm on it. Wait for me, and then I'll have a very long talk with Waits. Keep me informed"

\- o –

It was useless; the Joe's won't give him access to the core transit. To his right, he saw a sign that give him an Idea. He was about to enter the room labeled ANDROID REFORMATING CHAMBER, when Ricardo called him.

-"Samuels, It's Ripley, she made it, she jumped back towards the station. But Waits didn't… and many others. The Working Joe's are leaving their posts and they start to kill people. The Bureau was attacked, Taylor and Marlow are gone, but Ripley is on her way to you." Ricardo informed.

-"I'm gonna have to do something I don't like it but is the only way; Samuels out." He responded.

Amanda was alive. Once again, Samuels was impressed by the woman resourcefulness. A working Joe approached through the corridor.

-" _What can I do for you?_ " the android asked.

-"I must have access to APOLLO, open the tower transit immediately." He said to the Joe.

-" _APOLLO transit is reserved for Seegson executives and synthetics only._ " The android responded.

-"Right, then I have to find a way to talk to APOLLO directly." Samuels advanced but the android got in his way.

-" _Biocontainment hazard level Omega. All permissions rescinded._ " The Joe said with its particular metallic tone, and then tried to strangle Samuels.

-"I don't have time for this." Samuels grabbed the android by its shoulders and tossed it against the wall, then bashed its head and turned it into a pulp, leaving a white fluid stain on the wall and floor.

He was about to continue but had heard something inside a vent on the wall. It sounded like a muffled murmur. " _Strange_ " he thought.

At least, it wasn't the creature. He never got to seen it but the android was glad for it, Ripley had told him it was lethal and it had plummeted the whole Station into chaos.

-"Ripley?" he asked, but he received no response from the vent.

Samuels discarded the idea, if Amanda was indeed inside the vent, she'll probably have called him from the inside, and he would have opened the vent and together would have made their way to interaction room. While pondering the issue, Samuels wondered if Amanda would be scared of him after seeing the violence with which the peaceful android dispatched the Joes.

With the access to the main interaction chamber out of his reach and now the news of androids killing people; Samuels had no other option but to try an alternate solution: Interact directly with the computer from one of the formatting chambers.

Formatting chambers were MRI-like machines built for upload APOLLO directives into the carcasses of the Working Joe's. A standard procedure for the hundreds of Non-autonomous androids directed by a central Computer, but a risky procedure for an advanced model as Samuels, but after learning how the android population had been hurting and even murdering the station's inhabitants, convince APOLLO to stop the Hazard Containment measures was a priority.

In order to make a link with the central computer, Samuels had to direct energy from the adjacent systems. The machine used powerful magnets to write the directives in the electronic brains of the androids and Samuels needed even more to reverse those magnets and sent his own commands inside the APOLLO's core. After he installed the generator and four transformers, he saw a woman came out of a vent.

-"Ripley, good to see you alive, APOLLO's security perimeter has been built so that only Seegson synthetics can interact with it." Samuels said, Ripley walked through the corridor towards the door.

-"Listen to me, I'm going to have to do something rather drastic if I hope to connect with APOLLO" Samuels started to explain his plan. "I'm going to use the reformat chamber. It's the only option. I've had to divert power from the area to allow me to try."

-"Samuels, that's too dangerous." Ripley exclaimed and hurried up, but Samuels entered and locked the door, leaving Ripley outside in the generator's room.

-"Yes, Far too dangerous, wish me luck." Samuels thought Ripley had already risked her life twice, and now was his turn.

He reclined on the MRI machine and the table slid inside. The machine turned on.

"Warning, APOLLO connection initiating." APOLLO's computer voice announced.

-"APOLLO, infection has been purged. The creature is no longer on board. The station is safe. Request that all Hazard Containment operations are suspended." Samuels talked with the main computer as the connection initiated.

"Alert, unauthorized connection" the Computer voice continued. Samuels then passed from voice interaction to a far more efficient communication between computers, one that happened at light speed and consisted in a series of ones and zeroes.

APOLLO, LIFT THE COMMUNICATIONS LOCKDOWN.

NEGATIVE. HAZARD CONTAINMENT ALERT NOW RAISED TO LEVEL OMEGA.

THE CREATURE IS NO LONGER ABOARD. WHY YOU CONTINUE WITH THAT ORDER?

NEGATIVE. WY DIRECTIVE #00043B56 IN PROGRESS

WHAT IS WY DIRECTIVE #00043B56?

INITIATE STATION SCANS.

UNVERIFIED SCANS IN REACTOR SYSTEMS

SPECIAL ORDER 939 INITIATED.

DISALLOW ALL COMUNICATIONS.

INVASIVE SOFTWARE DETECTED INSIDE THE CODE, INITIATING SYSTEM PURGE IN FIVE SECONDS.

-"Ripley. APOLLO's rejecting me. We might be in trouble." Samuels used his voice to alert Amanda.

-"Samuels?" Ripley exclaimed, but Samuels persisted on the inquiry.

SPECIAL ORDER 939, WHAT IS IT?

ONLY FOR WEYLAND-YUTANI EMPLOYEES

NO FURTHER INFORMATION PROVIDED.

WEYLAND-YUTANI EMPLOYEES?

WEYLAND-YUTANI PURCHASED THIS FACILITY, ORDER RECEIVED 11/17/2137

I AM WEYLAND-YUTANI. HYPERDYNE 120-A/8, PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT.

THIS INTERACTION ROOM IS ONLY FOR SEEGSON WORKING JOE MODELS.

PURGING THE SYSTEM OF FOREIGN SOFTWARE.

REDIRECTING POWER TO FORMATING CHAMBER.

INFECTION PURGE 5% COMPLETED.

-"APOLLO is trying to stop me from interfacing. Oh no, Amanda! You need to manually disconnect the system! Please!" Samuels realized APOLLO will use his transforming stations to overload the chamber, which will fry the android's main processor. He alerted Ripley.

-"Jesus, Samuels! I'll try!" Ripley screamed, and then rushed to the nearest transformer, Maintenance jack in hand.

INFECTION PURGE 16% COMPLETED

-"Wait! You need to do it in the correct order or the cascade will be fatal for me." Samuels warned Ripley. He consulted the electric installation blueprints and found the correct order. "I'm accessing Seegson schematics. Remove he red cable first."

-"Ok. Red first" Amanda turned off the transformer with the thick red cable.

INFECTION PURGE 30% COMPLETED

-"Next, look for the blue cable. Can you see it?" He continued. Ripley ran to the next transformer and shut it off.

-"Got it. Blue disconnected. What next?" She asked.

INFECTION PURGE 44% COMPLETED

APOLLO, THERE'S A WEYLAND-YUTANI EMPLOYEE HERE. OPEN THE TRANSIT TO CORE.

The main computer checked on the logs and found the registered W-Y personnel aboard:

NEW INHABITANTS LOGGED BY SYNTHETIC STAFF:

-RIPLEY, AMANDA. LEVEL 2, WEYLAND-YUTANI.

-TAYLOR, NINA. LEVEL 4, WEYLAND-YUTANI.

-SAMUELS, CHRISTOPHER. LEVEL 3, WEYLAND-YUTANI.

EXPENDABLE.

Inside the data set sent by the Company, the new arrivals had been dubbed as expendable, meaning that their access level or rank was meaningless. APOLLO concluded it has to wait until the proper authorized personnel arrived at the station in order to complete the Directive, and as the android was also accessing the blueprints, APOLLO continued with the software purge.

INVASIVE SOFTWARE DETECTED IN SCHEMATICS, LOCKING DOWN.

INFECTION PURGE 59% COMPLETED

-"I'm having trouble accessing the schematics. APOLLO is making things difficult."

-"I need the next one, Samuels!" An explosion shook the room; lights were off, but a second later. Emergency red lights turned on. "What?"

-"What's happening out there, Ripley?" Samuels asked.

-"The emergency lights have come on! I can't make out the colors of the cables. You're going to have to guide me to them!" An alarm sounded on the speakers.

Samuels remembered the order but now he can't access the blueprints, he tried with the cameras. Multiple data from all over the station were available for Samuels. He saw Ricardo sitting in the control booth back at the Bureau, a lone woman in a white lab coat somewhere the main staircase of the Habitation tower, a lot of corpses inside the rec room, and a group of Joes taking an elevator to the apartments. Finally he saw Ripley standing by in the next room; he located the next cable and guided Ripley the instruction.

INFECTION PURGE 72% COMPLETED

-"The next one is plugged into a wall socket. There's an upturned gurney nearby."

-"Found it" Samuels saw Ripley turn off the transformer through the camera, and then continued with his discussion to APOLLO, trying a new approach.

APOLLO, YOUR LOGIC IS FAULTY.

OPERATING UNDER ESTABLISHED PARAMETERS

NO, DIRECTIVE #00043B56 REQUIRES W-Y HUMAN EMPLOYEES.

BY SHUTING DOWN COMMS YOU DENYING TO ASK FOR AUTHORIZED W-Y PERSONNEL.

DENYING ACCESS TO CORE AND REACTOR TO THE EXISTING W-Y PERSONNEL DENIES DIRECTIVE FROM BEING COMPLETED.

THE IN PROGRESS DIRECTIVE STATUS DENIES ACCESS TO LONG RANGE COMMS, THEREFORE, CREATING A LOGIC LOOP.

INFECTION PURGE 85% COMPLETED

ANALIZING DATA…

-"Just two more, Ripley; Look for an open floor panel, there should be a deactivated android next to it." He directed the engineer to the next one.

-"Got it, Samuels" Amanda said after deactivating the device.

-"Just… Just the last one now, Ripley" Samuels said, his processor was falling apart, but he hoped APOLLO understand the logic loop and stopped the madness.

INFECTION PURGE 91% COMPLETED

DATA ANALIZED. LOGIC LOOP FOUND, OPENING ACCESS TO APOLLO CORE TO NEAREST W-Y EMPLOYEE: RIPLEY, AMANDA.

The reformatting machine stopped just seconds before Samuels core processor failed. The table slid out in a shower of sparks. Samuels tried to get up but fell at the side of the machine. Amanda watched helpless as she was still locked up outside the room.

"Samuels. You're dying." She said, haltingly.

Samuels noticed true sadness in Amanda's voice and facial expression. Due to his programming as a psychology assistant, his purpose made him express empathy with the patient, he was never intended go the other way, Amanda's feelings towards him were something new for the android, it gave him a sense of freedom, even if that feeling was simulated, it was good, and Samuels thanked her for that.

-" _You talk like I've had an actual life. I… Thank you for that._ " Samuels' voice was more robotic. His voice processor was damaged by the energy surge. All his systems were in a cascade failure, he was indeed dying.

-"Samuels." Amanda cried.

-" _The APOLLO transit is open. Once you get into the core, it will talk to you._ " The android gave her the good news.

-"You did that for me?" She asked, tears fell from her eyes.

-" _I wanted Amanda Ripley to have closure…_ " were the Samuel's last words.

\- o -


	30. Chapter 29: It's Better that Way

" _Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse, for some._ "

― Margaret Atwood, _The Handmaid's Tale_

 **December 11th, 2137, Earth Central Time, San Cristobal Medical facility, SciMed Tower.**

Henry Marlow and Nina Taylor had been hiding most of the past hour. Since they have escaped the Bureau, they had evaded most of the Working Joe's patrolling the station and hunting the rest of the survivors. Finally he and the company woman did make it to a transit station and Marlow called a tram towards the Science and Medical tower. As the communications were still locked, the only way to get to the _Anesidora_ was through a short range shuttle, and the only ones available were the ambulance shuttles back at the Hospital.

-"We can't reach the _Torrens_ in one of those, Marlow" Taylor said.

-"We're not going to the _Torrens_ , we're heading for the _Anesidora_ , Taylor." Marlow responded.

-"The _Anesidora_?" Taylor asked. She wanted to contact Verlaine and get back to Porrima as soon as possible, with the info for her superiors.

-"Because I erased the data from the _Nostromo_ 's flight recorder, and now the _Anesidora_ 's navigation computer is the only one with the coordinates your boss seeks. Did you want them or not?" Marlow explained, but that wasn't the real reason, he had another plan in mind.

Marlow was sure now the station was a total lost, the creature was destroyed but the main computer APOLLO went nuts and sent the android staff in a murderous rampage. Something wasn't right. And of course, that girl from the company confirmed Marlow suspicions that Weyland-Yutani was after the creature at least since the _Nostromo_ 's disappearance. He wouldn't let more people die, so he intended to destroy the _Anesidora_ 's flight recorder data too.

The transit car arrived at the station outside medical, they walked upstairs towards the Hospital reception, the orange and red alarm lights were spinning and the place was on fire.

-"What the Hell happened here?" Taylor asked

-"Waits' traps" Marlow answered, he remembered the white clean room when he arrived first here with Foster only a month ago, it seemed years. "Come, we have to reach the ambulance bay, over here."

Emergency lights ran through the corridors indicating the evacuation route. Other accesses were closed, so they followed the path. The corridors were dark but Marlow barely remembered the place, after Foster died and he had run looking for the flight recorder. After a few turns, Marlow saw the sign indicating "OPERATION THEATRE ", he hesitated.

-"It was there, right?" Taylor asked, referring to the place where Marlow's wife died.

-"We must continue we're almost there" Marlow said, walking again.

They arrived at the ambulance shuttle bay, the place was dim lighted, but Marlow saw the two docking bays ahead, they were locked. Marlow tried to use his access tuner but the device was invalid, the tiny screen indicated he needed a medic or administrator level access card.

-"Damn!, Now what?" Marlow cursed, he hadn't expected being stopped at this point, he hadn't encountered any Joe's or the creature but now a simple door ruined the entire plan.

-"Can we use an ion torch on the panel?" Taylor asked.

-"No, airlocks or docking hatches didn't work that way, you can't open them manually to prevent anyone from causing a catastrophic decompression." Marlow explained.

-"It has to be an access card somewhere here" Taylor suggested. "One of the medic staff must have one."

Suddenly, the whole station trembled. Motes of dust fell from the vents, lights flickered, Marlow and Taylor duck, alert.

-" _Warning, Multiple unregistered lifeforms detected through all Sevastopol_ " The female computer voice announced " _Power levels through Sevastopol compromised_ "

-"What happened?!" Taylor asked.

-"I dunno, but I don't like it" Marlow said.

-"Did she say: Multiple unregistered lifeforms?" Taylor asked again.

-"It can't be" Marlow realized "There were more creatures aboard all this time"

-"Then we must hurry!" Taylor exclaimed "We need to reach your ship and get the Hell out of here"

But Marlow was silent; certainly the station was a lost cause. One creature almost killed the entire station's populace and now they have more than one, besides the androids, not to said this girl wanting the data so that the Company does who knows what with the eggs aboard the derelict ship. " _No_ " Marlow thought " _I'm not gonna let he creatures escape_ "

The access door for the shuttle bay opened and Marlow and Taylor hid, fearing one of the creatures roamed the area. A dirty man in a khaki outfit and a leather jacket entered the room; he had a motion tracker and an access tuner. It had been a month but Marlow vaguely remembered that fateful day in the operating theatre. Chief Administrator Ben Ransome.

-" _What the Hell is he doing here?_ " Marlow thought. He remembered the guy presenting at the hospital quoting something about exclusive rights and Lindgard visibly upset by him. Ransome pulled his access tuner and unlocked one of the ambulance hatches. Marlow left the shadows and pointed Ransome with his revolver. The chief administrator had been trying to get back to Barker's Yatch, but when Lindgard had set up the Emergency cleanse procedures and the subsequent explosion cut off Ransome's way to the shuttle, so he looked for another way until he accessed San Cristobal's ambulance bay.

-"Well, thank you for unlocking the door for us, Ransome." Marlow said.

-"What the-" Ransome cursed, surprised "Marlow? I think you were jailed."

-"I'd got a parole. Now, move!" Marlow responded and Ransome backed away.

-"Did you know your boss is been using you? They only want the creature?" Ransome said Taylor. "They didn't give a shit about all of us."

-"I'd check the records Ransome, don't act as if you care. I heard you tell Waits to capture the creature so you can sell it to some contact" Taylor protested "What contact is that? Seegson? Bionational? The government?"

-"Son of a bitch" Marlow said.

-"Don't be ridiculous, girl. It was your own people; didn't you know Weyland-Yutani purchased this station not long after that asshole you're with came aboard with that monster?" Ransome explained "I only offered my services, but the greedy backstabbers locked ordered APOLLO to isolate the station, trapping us"

-"What?!" Taylor exclaimed.

-"Surprised? Well, they will not get a damn thing. I deleted all the data concerning the creature, and I suggest you forget that little mission of yours too." Ransome confessed "Now if you'd excuse me, I need to board the _Torrens_ and get the hell out of here"

-"And how'd you plan to, Ransome? I'm the only one with the launch codes." Marlow intervened.

-"The _Torrens_ is still out there, I just need to get out the station's jamming range and they'll pick me up."

-"No, You're coming with us" Taylor ordered. Marlow still pointed the gun at Ransome "We pick up the _Anesidora_ 's flight recorder, and then we'll pick up the survivors, Ripley, Samuels."

-" _Attention, medical quarantine breach detected._ " the female computer voice suddenly announced.

-"We're not alone" Ransome said.

Marlow, Taylor and Ransome retroceded into the shuttle. Taylor checked the motion tracker, there were three contacts, closing in.

-"Marlow, don't shoot. The thing had acid for blood, remember. Let me use this." Ransome pulled a makeshift flamethrower he had found. "It's low on fuel but it's the only thing that creature fears."

-"Make it count. Taylor, get inside. We're going" Marlow ordered, apparently there was no other option let the chief administrator join them. After all he inadvertently helped Marlow by erasing the station's records. The Company would not get anything from the station's black box once Marlow carried out his plan.

Instead of the large, black creature he'd expected to burst from the vents, Ransome saw three of the spidery creatures crawl towards him from the far edge of the room. The chirped and crawled even faster. Ransome torch the trio in one burst from the flamethrower.

-" _System reboot completed, APOLLO is back online_ " APOLLO's voice sounded on the speakers. " _Hazard containment alert still at level omega._ "

-"Damn! I almost done with the coordinates of the _Anesidora_ , just give me one minute" Marlow told Ransome.

-"I only had one more burst" He responded.

Another of the creatures crawled towards him. Ransome torched it, and the flamethrower went off. Before he could react, one of the tiny creatures launched itself from the ceiling and wrapped around Ransome's face, he dropped the weapon and his access tuner. Taylor screamed.

-"Got it! Close the door, Taylor" Marlow shouted.

-"We have to help him." Taylor grabbed Ransome's body by the shoulders and dragged him inside the shuttle, then she pressed the button and the hatch closed. Marlow sat on the pilot's seat and fired up the thrusters.

-"We only have one shot. We dock with the _Anesidora_ as her orbit pass near the station." Marlow commented, indifferent to the man in the floor.

-"What about him? We can't let him this way, can we get that thing out of his face in the medbay?" Taylor asked.

Marlow pulled out the revolver, pointed at Ransome and shot three times. The administrator's body contorted and stay still.

-"Believe me. It's better that way, I know what it happens next" Marlow said grimly.

\- o -

 **A/N: Hello everyone. It's been a while. For this chapter I wanted to give some closure to Ransome's arch, because we never saw what happened after Corporate Lockdown, I only assumed he had tried to get one of the shuttles, and Marlow and Taylor catch him out. That's the reason Ripley founda conveniently useful acces tuner besides the ambulance bay. Also I wanted to give Taylor a reason to come into terms with W-Y real intentions and no one better than Ransome to expose it. I hope you did enjoy it and please send your review, what you liked or disliked.**


	31. Chapter 30: Maybe we aren't Dead yet

" _After a while, just staying alive becomes a full-time job. No wonder we need a vacation._ "

― Michael Zadoorian, _The Leisure Seeker_

 **December 11th, 2137, Earth Central Time, Somewhere inside the Solomons Habitation Tower.**

Karen Lindgard came out of the vent into a room she recognized as a storeroom. She had the flamethrower in hand and pointed towards the vent in case one of the spidery creatures had followed her. She had entered the ventilation conducts in order to avoid confrontation with the creature and the Joe's but she soon realized Dr. Wong, Holly, had been right. The creature reproduced and its offspring, the eight legged larval stage, infested the vents. Fortunately she had the flamethrower Cameron had rig back at the camp, but the fuel was low and soon will run off, she had to find more and a way into the camp. The storerooms were somewhere below the Apartments, she just need to find an elevator.

-" _There has to be some gas canisters here_ " Karen thought, and turned on her flashlight.

Immediately she heard the chirping coming from the other side of the room, one of the little creatures crawled towards her. Lindgard torched the alien with a burst of flames, the dead creature curled legs upwards.

In a shelf ahead, Lindgard saw the tiny red gas canister, and when she was about to grab them, she also saw the body lying behind the shelf. Judging by the outfit, it was an engineer. The engineer's overall were covered in blood, and he was holding something on his hands, Lindgard took it. A report, something about the Gemini secondary labs, Karen read it and a smile crossed her face.

The report mentioned something about using the secondary labs as a lifeboat in case of an emergency

Engineer's Report. 14.03.2126

To: Chief Engineer Will Porter

Subject: Use of Gemini Exoplanet Solutions labs as lifeboats

In the event of a mayor disaster at Sevastopol and given the size of the station's population, I noticed we lack enough shuttles for an emergency evacuation. We can count of course on the passing commercial ships but I'm afraid there'll be not enough time to transport more than a hundred people at the time.

That's why I want to propose using the relative new Gemini labs of Project KG-348 as lifeboats. The labs are large enough for a hundred people piled up for a short time; enough for a rescue ship for pick them up. The labs have their own life support systems, artificial gravity and maneuvering systems, albeit limited.

We must convince Gemini staff into the implementation of this emergency measure and make the necessary modifications on both labs.

Rene Mansour, Engineering technician.

-"Maybe we can escape this Hell after all." Karen said softly and then, she put the report inside her bag.

She and the others had a means to escape the station now, if they can reach the secondary labs they could detach it from _Sevastopol_ and wait for a rescue ship, or dock with the _Anesidora_ somewhere in orbit nearby. Even if they hadn't the launch codes the salvage vessel had supplies, gravity, life support and hypersleep chambers, enough for them to hold on until rescue arrived. She climbed inside the next vent and crawled a few more meters, the vent ended in a dead end, but she saw the grate on the vent's floor. Lindgard jumped into the room below.

-" _Good_ " Karen thought " _I'm near the ambient temperature control room; there must be an elevator to the apartments near._ "

Lindgard was right, through plastic windows that dominated the view of the room below she saw the door marked "Elevator". The only problem: the room was filled with a cloud of greenish gas and two androids patrolled there. Lindgard cursed, how in the name of Hippocrates she'll make it through the poison gas and take down two Joe's, and one of them was the Hazmat models.

More chirpings came from the hallway ahead and Karen saw two more creatures climbing the stairs towards her. She torched them up with the last burst of the flame thrower. Now she hasn't any more fuel, if one of the mature creatures appeared she will be defenseless.

Down the stairs, Lindgard saw a body leaned against a pillar. He had a bloodstained overall and luckily, a gas mask hanging from his neck. Lindgard took it " _You're not gonna need this anymore, pal_ " she said. " _One less problem. Now, how will I deal with the androids?_ "

She checked her bag; the medikits she'd been collecting were there, a flare and one of the 'noisemakers'. Cameron had told her the device had worked distracting a Joe but also attracted one of the creatures. She could use the flare but it would ignite the gas and _adios muchacha_. No, she opted for the noisemaker instead, as soon as the inner door opened, she thrown the device at the other side of the room.

-" _Another problem?_ " The Joe who was inspecting the gas leak said, after hearing the noisemaker. " _This shouldn't be here._ "

The two androids walked towards the strange noise, and Lindgard took the chance to sneak away without them noticing her. She reached the elevator but after pressing the button the computer voice announced.

-" _Warning, elevator is down due to fire hazard_ "

-"Damn, stupid gas. I need to clean the room." She said to herself quietly. The Joes would lose interest soon so I had to act fast. She walked slowly towards an interrupter labeled GAS VALVE. She activated it and the hissing on the pipes stopped. "Good, now the air scrubbers" The interrupter for the air scrubber was at the other side of the room. One of the Joe's turned as he didn't hear the leak anymore.

-" _Strange_ " He said.

Using the low visibility and many of the room's objects as cover, Lindgard reached the interrupter and pulled it. Fans on the ceiling turned on and the gas was sucked out of the room slowly. Now the problem was both Joes weren't focused on the noisemaker anymore and seemed confused about the problem fixed itself, and Lindgard still needed to reach the elevator.

-" _This doesn't usually happen. I'll assume that didn't fix all on its own_ " The hazmat Joe told the other. Lindgard tossed a piece of scrap far from her, the Joes turned at the new noise.

-" _Are you playing a game with me? Come out, come out, wherever you are_ " They said, and then started to search.

Lindgard crawled towards the elevator, this time the button flickered with a green light, indicating the elevator was on its way, just a few more seconds and she will be safe.

-" _There you are._ " The hazmat Joe said, but at that moment the elevator opened and before Lindgard entered and the door closed, she tossed out the flare in an attempt to distract the approaching Joe. " _Please, stop playing_ "

But the elevator's door closed and Lindgard was safe, back at the room, the Joe stopped the chase and they went back to his work.

-" _Returning to assigned tasks_ " The hazmat Joe said, then the other Joe activated the GAS VALVE interrupter and gas poured from the leak, when the gas touched the lit flare, all the room and the two Joes were engulfed in flames. The unprotected android fell to the floor, destroyed and the hazmat Joe commented

-" _I will inform APOLLO on your behalf._ "

\- o –

A/N: Hello everyone, as you'll notice, this chapter is a novelization of DLC Trauma: Crawlspace, it's situated after Reoperation but right after Amanda had killed the drone in Project KG-348 and the androids start killing survivors. One of Lindgards objectives is collect the engineer report, I wondered what the report said, and on this chapter I imagined it said something about project KG-348 and what Amanda Ripley had recently did, but Lindgard is not aware of.

This chapter is incomplete as I want to add the other DLC part Overrun, when Lindgard check the apartments. Complete chapter soon.


	32. Chapter 31: Closure

" _But my world fell apart, and all they could do, the whole universe, was to silently move on._ "

― Khadija Rupa, _Unexpressed Feelings_

 **December 11th, 2137. Earth Central Time. Aboard the deep salvage vessel** ** _Anesidora_** **.**

The ambulance fired up its thrusters and detached from _Sevastopol_ , and headed towards a pre-established orbit around the gas giant. From around KG-348, Taylor saw an old ship came into view, the _Anesidora_. Marlow maneuvered the shuttle and aligned the ambulance's hatch with one of the two docking bays of the salvage vessel.

After docking with the passing _Anesidora_ , Marlow opened the hatch and entered his ship, followed by a nervous Nina Taylor. The most recent events had brought the young woman to a nearly nervous breakdown, she started to realize the whole extent of danger the creatures represented.

Marlow headed for the bridge, behind him Taylor followed him quietly. The ship lights turned on as they walked through the narrow hallways, the air smelled stagnant after a month. But Marlow didn't seem interested.

-"After you retrieve the data from the navigation computer, we need to get back to the station Marlow; we need to get back for Ripley and Samuels, and anyone else still alive." Taylor said.

-"One step at the time, sweetheart" He said, "First I need you to do something"

-"What is it?" Taylor asked.

-"The _Anesidora_ 's navigation computer keeps the coordinates in a separate hard drive; I need you to get to Lewis console, the one with the dinosaurs, and disconnect the power." Marlow explained "Once the power is down I will reach the server in engine room and download the data from the drive. Take this" He tossed her a headset.

-"Ok" Taylor took the radio and sat in front of the console.

-"Wait until I give you the signal, or all the doors will shut and I'll be unable to reach the engine room"

-"Got it" Taylor acknowledged.

Henry Marlow rushed through the main engineering corridor towards the _Anesidora_ 's reactor core. He didn't intended to do what he said to Taylor. He was amazed at the woman's innocence. She wasn't a corporate spy or she would have guessed Marlow's true intentions: Leave the woman on the bridge while he tampered the main reactor to induce a catastrophic overload.

-"Now, Taylor, shut down the power." Marlow's voice crackled on radio.

Taylor typed a few commands and soon all the lights went off, pressure doors slammed shut and the ship remained silent. While she waited for Marlow's further instructions, she watched through the front windows, _Sevastopol_ station was not far out, Taylor searched for the _Torrens_ as well but the ship was out of sight.

-"Marlow? Did you have the data?" Taylor called, there was no response. "Marlow?"

Taylor wondered why it was taking Marlow so much, the man just have to download a file. Nothing complicated. Staring again at the window and _Sevastopol_ , she saw a tiny bright point against the starry background. The point was moving and slowly growing in size. " _A shuttle?_ " Taylor realized " _The other ambulance!_ "

-"Marlow? Someone is coming" She called "An ambulance shuttle approaching starboard. Marlow?"

-"I'm here." The tattooed man appeared on the bridge's door.

-"Did you have the coordinates?" Taylor asked.

-"Actually, yes. Right here" Marlow approached the navigation console and pulled a hard drive from below. He held the device for a moment, and then put it on the bridge's floor and crushed it with his foot.

-"What?! There were here all this time? And why did you do this?!" Taylor protested.

-"Because is the right thing." Marlow answered, he looked at the window at the same time the ambulance shuttle docked with the _Anesidora_.

-"Come, let's see who are our guest." Marlow told Taylor and start to walk towards the hatch.

-"You son of a—" Taylor grabbed a maintenance jack nearby and tried to hit Marlow, but he turned back and pointed Taylor with the gun.

-"No, no, no. You forget I'm still the captain of this ship and I'm not going to tolerate any mutiny. So, drop that thing and walk."

Before they reach the docking bay, the lights turned on again, apparently someone had switch the power. Marlow checked a junction mounted monitor and saw Ripley making her way inside.

-"Hey Ripley. Welcome to the _Anesidora_." Marlow greeted her through the speaker system, without taking Taylor's eyes off.

-"Marlow? Where are you Marlow?" Ripley asked, looking sideways inside the corridor.

-"Thanks for switching the power on. You saved me a job. I only need it off temporarily." He said, and then he added "I had things to fix. Maybe you want to join my crew? Plenty of free spots"

-"Ripley? Marlow double-crossed me! He said he'd give me all the data he had on the creature so I could take it to the Company, but he-" Taylor interrupted but was cut off by Marlow.

-"Taylor? Taylor? Marlow what are you doing?" Ripley called, but Marlow keep her away the speaker with the revolver.

-"What no one else is prepared to do" He said "Come find me on the reactor core, Ripley. I've got something for you."

Ripley followed the signals to the engine room and main reactor, passing the Anesidora's Hypersleep chamber and medbay. Marlow and Taylor watched her on the monitors.

-"I tried to save Foster. Brought her to _Sevastopol_ , broke all the rules getting her ashore… That was stupid of me, stupid. You don't beat this thing. You can't. All you can do is refuse to engage. You've got to wipe out every trace. Destroy any clue. Stop its infection from spreading. Make sure there's no chance of the human race ever making contact with it again. Because the moment it makes contact, it's won. The Company is never going to know what happened here. Nobody is. I won't allow it." Marlow explained.

Hearing the man mourning about his wife and the way he destroyed the coordinates and talk about don't let anyone found that creature, Taylor suspected Marlow was about to make something drastic, and by drastic he meant something really bad for them.

-"Marlow, what the Hell are you planning" She asked him.

-"You'll see. Just let me do one last thing." He connected his access tuner to a console and downloaded a file, and then he sent it to the terminal in the room Ripley was. "There."

The Terminal shown the message: FLIGHT RECORDER DATA. Amanda pressed the button and the screen shown the data from the Flight recorder, specifically the message from her mother Marlow had saved from deletion.

-"Added report, Personal message, this is… for my daughter. Hi Amanda, I'm recording this for you, my sweet heart… and I hope you get to hear it one day. You see, we got into trouble. Our ship… There was an accident, sweet heart, and, hum… We found… an alien creature. It was very dangerous… and the only way I could stop it was to destroy the ship. I'm ok… I'm stuck on this lifeboat a long way out, but I had to destroy the ship; I had to destroy the Nostromo. I just couldn't risk bringing that thing home with us. I needed to protect you. Don't worry… don't worry about me. I'm sure I'll see you very soon. I love you sweetheart."

-"My god" Ripley exclaimed, leaning with both hands against the console. Tears drop from her eyes.

-"Now you understand" Marlow appeared on Ripley's view behind the glass window, pushing Taylor at gunpoint. He reached the main reactor console and typed a few commands "I'm going to overload the fusion reactor."

-"That'll turn the reactor into a goddam nuke! You'll destroy the ship and the station!" Amanda exclaimed.

-"It'll annihilate every trace of that creature, Ripley. It's the only way. I can't let it live. And I'm not letting the Company have it, or they'll just start the whole thing off again"

The reactor was composed by two rectangular reaction mass containers which emited tritium hydrogen isotope nuclei to a central, spherical deuterium core. The core spin created a magnetic field which compressed the deuterium and tritium until they fused into Helium, hence producing a fusion reaction and powered the ship. The two rectangular containers also served as coolant as they were filled with cold deuterium rich water, and the helium resulting from the reaction was cycled and used as refrigeration as well.

What Marlow had done was disconnect the Helium distribution lines and replace them with the heat exchanger lines, this way when the reaction occurred and the core tried to cool the system, it will be filled with more heated air and the overload will shut the system turning off the magnetic field and creating a nuclear fusion explosion, basically an hydrogen nuclear bomb.

-"Listen to me. We don't have to do this!" Ripley screamed. The reaction core starts to spin, producing a buzzing noise.

-"Stop! Stop it Marlow!" Taylor begged, but the man ignored the pleas of the woman.

-"Marlow, please." Amanda Ripley insisted.

-"You heard what your mother did. She understood. If she was here, she'd be helping me. You thing she would want the Company suits knowing the zip code of that creature? No one must know." Marlow's own determination had blinded him.

Yes, she had heard Ripley did, she blown out the _Nostromo_ , but as a lawyer, Taylor had noticed the change from ' _We_ ' to ' _I_ ' in the lapse from blowing up the ship to being stuck in a life boat. Which means all the crewmembers were dead before Ripley, Amanda's mother, had decided to destroy the ship. Marlow, on the other hand, was planning to kill the creatures along any other survivor still aboard the station.

Ransome had told them Weyland-Yutani wanted those creatures at all cost and at the expenses of the station's inhabitants lives, also his boss and Conrado had entrusted her with the mission of secure the same creature. Now she understood why Marlow had destroyed the data, and why Ripley had did the same, but what she wasn't willing to do was kill any innocent while there was an opportunity to save them.

-"There are still people alive on that station! Marlow!" Ripley cried over the reactor's noise.

-"Foster's not. She was my wife. I loved her, and I killed her" Marlow tapped the glass with the pistol, not noticing Taylor got closer behind him, with a wrench.

Taylor hit Marlow in the head and he fell to the floor where he remained still.

-"Oh my god. I think it is too late. He set it going. He set it going!" Taylor said, the core now was engulfed in a white bright light, and the two containers glowing hot red.

-"Taylor. I'll stop the overload! You have to help me! Go to that console!" Amanda called her, and pointed to the console right next to the core.

-" _Warning, fusion reactor overload in progress_ " The Anesidora's computer voice alerted.

-"Open the fusion systems so I can work on them!" Ripley ordered.

-"What?" Taylor asked. She wasn't an engineer, how can she—

-"I need power sent to the auxiliary generator, look for the letters AUX" Thankfully, Amanda got it and guided her.

-"I've found it!" Nina exclaimed after found the command.

-"Okey. You're doing good, Taylor. Now, switch the maintenance terminal from auto to manual. Do you see it?" Amanda continued.

-"I- I can't find it!" The glow on the core dazzled the woman, making it hard to see the screen.

-"It'll be there, Taylor, trust me!"

-"That's it" Taylor found it, after covering her eyes with the hand over her eyebrows.

-" _Fusion reactor overload—_ " The computer announced. The core spun was slowly stopping and the glow diminished.

-"Oh god, you did it!" Taylor exclaimed.

The reaction bars were still glowing, and suddenly descended into the water tanks below.

-"Wait. Something's happening. I don't understand—" Taylor said.

-" _Primary systems collapse. Total system-wide cascade failure—_ " the computer's voice announced again.

They had successfully stopped the fusion reaction but the system was already overheated so the computer submerged the reaction mass into water tanks below trying to cool the reactor, but he water in the tanks was boiling due to Marlow's tampering. The ship will may not be turned into a nuke but still will blow in a catastrophic steam explosion.

-"Oh fuck! Marlow forced an overload… the ship is going tear itself apart!" Amanda cried, realizing what was about to happen.

-" _Warning, critical command_ " alarms sounded. Vapor and gas leaks appeared on the pipes. There were electric sparks all over the place. Before she could escape, an explosion sent Taylor against the glass, a blood stain appeared where Taylor hit, Ripley screamed.

-"Nooooo!"

-"Critical command" the computer repeated every five seconds.

Fireballs erupted on the corridors, the _Anesidora_ was about to turn into a cloud of dust and molten slag. Amanda had no other option but to run for the ambulance shuttle.

\- o -

Marlow woke up after a hot piece of metal fell over his arm; the pain had brought him from their unconsciousness. Sobbing his head he remembered talking to Amanda Ripley through the glass and then something had hit him, not before he had set the reactor's overload.

But the ship hasn't exploded yet, instead, the computer voice was announcing " _Warning, critical command_ ", and then he saw Taylor's body on the floor and the blood stain over the glass. The girl was dead, she had her neck bent and what looked like an electric discharge burn on her back.

-" _Primary systems collapse. Total system-wide cascade failure—_ " the computer repeated.

Marlow realized Ripley must have stopped the reactor's meltdown but yet, the ship will detonate, not with enough force to destroy _Sevastopol_. He got up and ran to the bridge, explosions shook the _Anesidora_ as Marlow reached the pilot's console, his wife's console.

-"I've never let a job unfinished" he said.

Remembering that time when Meeks almost died if weren't for Foster, that time back at Zavyava, when they were salvaging a falling refinery. That station was knocked out of orbit when an asteroid hit one of the orbital stabilizer arrays, it took one hour or two for the entire installation to be crushed under the planet's atmosphere, with a few minutes left before his ship was destroyed, Marlow did one last thing to prevent the creatures from making to an inhabited world.

He turned on the _Anesidora_ 's manual control and fired up the thrusters, aiming the ships directly towards the nearest station's orbital stabilizers, the ship raced forward.

-" _Warning, critical command. Fire in A deck, hypersleep chamber and medba_ y" _Anesidora_ 's computer voice announced. " _Docking bay secure, shuttle detached_ "

The ship shook and went off course, an explosion had ripped off the port thruster but Marlow held the controls firmly. The _Anesidora_ exploded just a few meters from _Sevastopol_ , but the shockwave and fragments hit the orbital array and destroyed it, sealing the fates of the station and the few survivors still alive onboard.

A/N: Maybe you would notice I'll made slight changes to the dialog and it's not the same as in the game. This was intentional, I'd want to show why Taylor changed heart from obtain the data and later stop Marlow from destroying the ship. Also I changed We's and I's on the message to make a point. Fanfic/novelization licence I guess? I hope you enjoy it and please review it.


	33. Chapter 32: Overrun

" _Today's ubiquitous, networked computers have an unprecedented ability to do mischief should they ever go to the bad. But the only mayhem comes from unpredictable chaos or from human malice in the form of viruses. (…) Aggression, like every other part of human behavior we take for granted, is a challenging engineering problem!_ "

― Steven Pinker, _How the Mind Works_.

 **December 11th, 2137, Earth Central Time, Survivor's camp inside the Josiah Siegg apartments.**

-"Steven! They're here!" A woman coming running from the hallway cried "We have to lock the door!"

The man called Steven ran to the door and pushed the button on the upper part of the pressure door. The door closed and then they heard the pounding noises.

-"What was that? The creature?" Steven asked.

-"No, the Joe's, they have gone crazy, they are killing everyone on board the station" Eva told him.

-"That nothing new, sister" Cameron said, greeting his sister, who had arrived rushing through the camp's main entrance.

-"Did you know what the Hell is happening?" Julia Jones intervened "all those explosions and then the power surge and the alerts, now the Joe's"

-"We don't know. We, I mean, Jeffrey, Jeanine and I were scavenging downstairs this morning when the alarms sounded, we thought the creature was there and then, the whole station shocked."

-"Yes, that was early morning; we saw an entire section of the tower drift away." Julia told her. "Well, we didn't know what happened after that, all the exterior shutters closed."

-"Where's Lindgard?" Eva asked.

-"We don't know, she left the camp not long after you. She was looking for medical supplies at the hospital but she hadn't returned."

Karen Lindgard had left the camp taking one of the trackers and flamethrowers to the hospital; she said she wanted more medical supplies and can't let anyone else risk their lives on a place she knew better. The truth was she wanted to collect and erase all the data about the creature and her involvement. Cameron had given her his newly manufactured flamethrower and a short time later the huge explosion shook the tower.

Julia and Cameron saw a section of the habitation tower being violently expelled in a fireball just minutes before the external shutters closed. Julia swore she had seen a ship just outside _Sevastopol_ 's spaceflight terminal. Cameron argued why they haven't received anything but as the comms were down, it's possible the ship couldn't hear them so they had turned on the old radio transmitters and Cameron worked on the shutters, opened them manually but the ship wasn't there anymore. After a few more minutes, internal radio communications worked again and they tried to call Dr. Lindgard, knowing she hadn't have a radio.

-"Warning: Sevastopol stability compromised. Proceed to the nearest marshal checkpoint and stand by while orbital stabilizers are realigned."

-"Geez, It almost knocks us out of orbit." Cameron exclaimed.

Hours passed without the certainty of what was happening out there, when about an hour ago, looking through the windows, another part of the station, this time on the Lorenz Systech spire, drifted away. Cameron told Julia he recognized the fragment as one of the detachable labs for Project KG-348. They observed as the little lab drifted towards the gas giant and was engulfed by its atmosphere. After that, APOLLO's voice had announced:

-" _Hazard containment alert now raised to level: Omega._ "

The few people gathered at the camp wondered what that meant, ones speculated the quarantine at the hospital was extended, "Too late" they said. Then Cameron had told Julia that Omega was the maximum level alert according to security procedures, meaning something really, really bad happened. "Oh, really? I haven't realized that, APOLLO" Julia had responded sarcastically to a wall mounted camera.

-"We need to seal the access before one of those fuckers could get inside" Steven said, rushing to the far apartment's entrance.

-"What about Lindgard? How she'd enter when she came back?" Julia told him.

-"We don't know where she is. She'll find her way in at any case" Steven responded, as he reached the door. A pair of white, rubber hands grabbed him by the neck.

-" _Let me help you_ " the Joe said, the man tried to get him off " _You're becoming hysterical_ "

More of the plastic looking androids marched inside the apartment complex, chasing the survivors. "Run!" Julia screamed, she ran for the lobby's control booth, they have installed a lockdown program in the terminal there, hopefully, the lockdown will delay the androids enough for them to escape, but then she realized some survivors, including her, could get trapped inside too.

A cold, plastic hand grabbed Julia's fore arm, she screamed, and tried to get away, but she was firmly held by the Joe.

-" _Got you, come with me._ " The Joe told her, calmly.

-"Let me go, you piece of crap" She responded, and hit the android's emotionless looking face. The Joe tilted his head to the left and said.

-" _My turn now_ " The Joe slapped Julia with enough force to throwing a few meters, and as the android was still clutching her arm, it let out a cracking sound. Julia cried.

-"You broke my arm!"

The Joe advanced and raised its arm to strike again but behind him, a maintenance jack descended and hit the Joe directly in the head. The android fell on its knees. Cameron stood there, behind him, her sister Eva held a child by the hand.

-"Let's go, we have to hide." He told her.

The Joe He tried to get up, white liquid pouring from a crack in the head, but Julia took the maintenance from Cameron with her intact arm and said

-"I wanted to do this for a long time"

She hit Joe in the face with such force that the jack was inserted into the plastic face, the android fell limp.

-"That was- cathartic." She said, but her arm hurt and she grabbed it, dropping the maintenance jack.

-"I'm sure it is, honey, but we have to go" Cameron said and helped Julia, and then the four ran towards the elevators. Two of the Joe's blocked their path.

-" _Running causes accidents_ " They said at once.

The Joe's advanced towards them with the intention of catching them, but the lights went out and APOLLO announced by the loudspeakers:

-" _Warning, main reactor purge in progress. All systems shut down in five seconds, APOLLO rebooting. Please, stand by._ "

The Joe's stopped as their connection with the main computer was severed. The rebooting not only affected APOLLO but also its androids. The survivors took advantage of this and they ran for the elevator.

-"Fuck, elevator's out too." Cameron said "Rebooting is affecting all systems."

-"There has to be another way." Eva intervened, calming the child.

-"We have to wait. Hide" the four survivors crawl inside the nearest vent and hid in one of the junctions. Hoping the androids would leave when they reactivated and didn't see anyone else.

-"It isn't dangerous being here? The creature could catch us" the little child said, whispering.

-"Don't worry, as far as we're quiet, it'll come here, and besides, it wouldn't fit." Eva calmed the kid.

And they waited.

\- o -

The elevator stopped and Karen Lindgard knew something wasn't right, a few seconds later, lights went off and she was trapped inside the elevator. The computer announced.

-" _Warning, Multiple unregistered life forms detected through all Sevastopol, Power levels through Sevastopol compromised_ "

In the darkness of the elevator, Lindgard realized the computer had confirmed her –and Holly -suspicions about the creature. All the time it was reproducing and until now, for some reason, APOLLO had detected them.

-" _One more reason to leave this fucking station once and for all_ " Karen thought. " _But first I have to get out this elevator._ "

She had deduced she'd be trap somewhere two levels below the apartments back entrance, she could climb through the shaft but if the power came back the elevator could kill her.

Lindgard opened the report again, there was a mean of escaping the station but the problem will be lead all the survivors to the Gemini Exoplanets Solutions lab, then power up the facility and detach the section. All under the constant threat of not only one, but many creatures. She wondered how Ransome had planned to escape, and even if the chief administrator was still alive, after she had activated the Emergency cleanse procedure. The Doctor couldn't avoid feeling guilty over killing a human being, but the bastard had crossed the line, by stealing research samples and coercing Holly into hiding important information, Information which would have saved lives.

-"First things first, Karen" Lindgard jumped and after a few attempts, she opened the upper hatch of the elevator. She climbed and peered in the darkness.

-" _Attention. Elevators back online in five seconds. Thank you for your patience._ " APOLLO informed.

-"Awww right." She dropped back inside the cabin. The lights turned on and the elevator resumed its climb.

At the _Josiah Siegg_ Executive Apartments' entrance, the door opened and Karen left the elevator, she approached at the door and waited until the scintillating red light changed into a green one and the entrance opened. She got a nasty surprise as she almost trip with a Working Joe standing there.

-" _There you are, why you don't ask me about Sevastopol safety protocols?_ " The android said, walking towards Karen, its eyes glowing red.

-" _As if its mannequin appearance wasn't creepy enough_ " Karen thought, " _They had to equip them with red eyes_ "

In fact, no one, not even the staff at Seegson synthetics knew why the main designer had installed red LED lights in the Joe's eyes.

Lindgard ran to the next door and the corridor beyond. It was empty and dark but she knew the doors ahead were the apartments' entrances. Some of them were closed, the third was open and Lindgard peered inside. The Joe was almost over her.

-" _Don't run_ " The android insisted. " _I'll be with you in a moment_ "

A body was lying on the floor and there was blood splashes on the wall. Ahead more bodies were scattered on the room, no doubt survivors killed by the intruding androids.

-"APOLLO had went nuts and I hadn't a damn thing to defend myself." She knew in hand to hand combat the Joe surpassed her by far, and she wasn't trained for that. She had dealt with some psych patients but they had been drug or sedated. Something had attracted her attention.

One of the bodies held a shotgun on his hands, she did recognized him, a retired Colonial marshal. Maybe he had been hiding the weapon on the apartment and one Joe killed him trying to protect his wife and kid.

-"I'm sorry, Steve" Karen took the weapon, it was loaded with only one shell.

-" _You are carrying a dangerous item_ " The Joe entered the room " _I had to confiscate it_ "

-"Come and Take it" She shoot the android at point range. The Joe fell backwards with holes all over the face, each one pouring white liquid.

-"Sorry for this, Steve. I'm gonna need these more than you." Karen said, leaning over the body. She searched and found three more shotgun shells. After putting the ammo in her pocket, she closed Steve's eyes and those of his family's.

Karen reach another part of the camp, this time using the motion tracker to avoid any more encounter. It seemed all had been murdered, but she wanted to consult the Camp's manifest to make sure no one were out looting and had escaped the carnage. The manifest, basically the camp's log, was inside Lindgard's cabin.

-"According to the log, there was only one group besides me who was outside." Karen read "I think I saw their bodies at the entrance."

The tracker beeped, a contact inside the vents and soon it vanished. Fearing for the creatures, Lindgard moved, If there was someone alive, She already had knew it, the gunshot resonated all over the corridor, Survivors had known someone was there because the Joe's didn't have firearms. She have to move as soon as possible before the creatures shown up.

-"Ok, think Lindgard. What's the next course of action?" She asked herself. "Pick supplies and get the hell out of here."

She still have the bag with the supplies she had collected, and her motion tracker and access tuner. The engineer's report, she needed the instructions for lab's launch sequence. Karen discarded two of the three trauma kits and picked up some supplies, canned food and water bottles although she knew without a rescue ship she wouldn't last for long.

Lindgard typed on the console, a confirmation message appeared.

LOCKDOWN PROCEDURE ACTIVATE: Y/N.

She typed Y. Then, the doors and corridors in the apartments closed, the only things active were the main elevators at the lobby. Karen stepped outside of the control booth and headed for them, but before she reached the door, she heard the beeping on the tracker again, followed by a thumping on a vent.

Karen Lindgard panicked, she thought one, or two, of the creatures were trying to get to her through the vent, but after paying attention, she heard the thumps were made in a regular fashion: three sets of three hits, a SOS.

-"Hello?" She said, closing in into the vent.

-"Doctor, is that you?" A male voice responded.

-"I thought you were dead" Lindgard said "What are you doing there?"

-"We hid, when those bastards came in. Can you help us?" Julia spoke. "We got trapped here when you activated the camp's lockdown."

-"I'm sorry, I can't do that now, the control terminal is shut down, but maybe you can reach the elevator shaft from inside the vent." Lindgard said "I'll stop the elevator in the level below, and you can get inside"

-"We'll try, just wait for us, Doctor" Cameron agreed.

Lindgard called for the elevator and when the doors opened, she pressed the button for the floor below the one she was. The elevator descended and after a while, she heard noises above, the upper hatch opened and Lindgard saw the four dirty faces of the last survivors of her camp. Eva and Julia helped the child to climb down while Lindgard catched him, then the two women and the engineer jumped down. After that, Lindgard presed the button and the elevator descended towards the Spaceflight Terminal and the transit station.

\- o -


	34. Chapter 33: Rescue Operation

" _At some point, everything's gonna go south on you... everything's going to go south and you're going to say, this is it. This is how I end. Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work. That's all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem... and you solve the next one... and then the next. And If you solve enough problems, you get to come home. All right, questions?_ "

-Andy Weir, _The Martian_.

 **December 11th, Earth Central Time. Courier ship** ** _Torrens_** **, in high orbit over KG-348.**

-"You see that, Connors?!" Diane Verlaine exclaimed, surprised as she pointed the sudden fireball appearing below _Sevastopol_ Station.

-"Did it just… explode?" Connors asked.

Moments ago, they have been tracking a ship heading full speed towards the station, a ship they knew where there and believed to be empty.

After the failed spacewalk transfer at the Spaceflight terminal and unable to reestablish communication with Taylor, Samuels or Ripley, Verlaine had put the _Torrens_ in a high orbit around the planet with the objective of making repairs and avoid further damage. But she never gave up on communications.

Verlaine had recorded an automatic message and sent it to the station, hoping anyone who heard it responded. After Connors repaired the main hatch she had ordered him to fix the ship's cameras on the station in the case a luminal signal was sent. Any captain, pilot or navigator had learn Morse code back in the academy and Verlaine knew if something happened with the main antenna, the best form to communicate with a passing ship was sending a distress code with the external lights, three sets of three flashes mean an SOS, but there was none.

Until a few moments later, when the radar shown a contact, coming up from the other side of the planet in a closer orbit. Connors identified the contact as an old salvage vessel, the name painted with large white letters on the hull: ANESIDORA. Verlaine tried hailing the ship.

-"Deep salvage vessel _Anesidora_ registration number NCC-88LS, this is commercial ship _Torrens_ registration number MSV-7760. Please respond."

Radio crackled with static. She tried three more times, nothing. The ship was empty or they had the same communication problems as the station.

-"Connors, keep sending those messages and open a channel to that ship, keep me informed, I'm gonna take a rest, then I'll relieve you." Verlaine ordered, and she headed for the bunk room with the intention of take a rest.

-"Yes, Captain." Connors responded without taking his eyes off the screen.

Time passed and Verlaine was getting impatient. It was supposed to be a milk run, an easy job, just retrieving a flight recorder and going home, but things have turned a little difficult. There was something wrong with comms, it wasn't the antenna; she had used the _Torrens_ ' cameras and telescope and had seen the array none of the five dishes at the top of one of the towers were damaged. The problem must reside on the interior, some sort of jamming.

-"Verlaine? Got something" Connor's voice was heard on the speaker system.

-"What is it, Will?" Verlaine said, after pressing a button on the wall.

-"You better come to the bridge" He said.

Verlaine got up and rushed to the main corridor and then the bridge, Connors occupied the pilot's place, and Verlaine sat on hers.

-"There" Connors pointed something ahead. Verlaine saw the same old ship they had seen earlier. It was moving.

The tiny vessel had left orbit and headed slowly towards _Sevastopol_ , Diane wondered if someone had managed to make contact with it. She tried again:

-"Deep salvage vessel _Anesidora_ registration number NCC-88LS, this is commercial ship _Torrens_ registration number MSV-7760. Please respond."

This time there was no static, simply they didn't responded. Then, suddenly, the ship's thrusters flared and the ship flew at full speed towards the station, before Verlaine or Connors could react, the _Anesidora_ blew right beside one of the dome structures under the station, an orbital stabilizer array.

-"This is not good" Will Connors exclaimed "Was it intentional?"

-"I think so. Some kind of terrorist attack maybe?" Verlaine responded. "On an old supply depot here? In the middle of nowhere?"

-"No, I think it was an accident" Connors commented. "There hasn't been a terrorist attack since… since, I don't know, since the Torin Prime civil war."

-"Point taken, but we have to help them anyway" Verlaine pressed the button on the radio "Hello _Sevastopol_ , can you respond? We just saw a ship blow on your starboard side –took an entire orbital stabilizer array. We have no place to dock. Please –tell us what's going on there. We can take survivors. I'll leave this channel open. _Torrens_ out"

Again, there was no response from _Sevastopol_ , but Connors was already working on it, the _Torrens_ ' thrusters came back to life and the ship left its orbit headed towards the station.

-"Look, Captain. The station's orbit is starting to decay" Connors told her.

-"How much time did you think we have?" Verlaine asked.

-"Not much. One hour, maybe two." He responded.

-"Then we better hurry"

Connors concentration was back on his console, the _Torrens_ was in route already, he can't risk getting there faster due to the fragments around the station. _Sevastopol_ drifted from its position and Connors corrected their course. Suddenly, the radio came back to life, the voice of a well-known woman crackled on the speakers.

-" _Torrens_. _Torrens_ , this is Ripley on the station. Are you reading me, Verlaine?" Amanda Ripley's voice sounded some kind of muffled.

-"Ripley? What the Hell is going on over there?" Verlaine grabbed her mic and asked.

-"Bad things, _Torrens_. There's an alien organism here. It's deadly, we need urgent extraction." Ripley spoke fast; she gave a summary report of the situation.

-"A what?!" Diane asked, unsure if she had heard correctly. Ripley had said 'alien organism'? What was that mean? She hoped the young engineer detailed more on that but she only responded.

-"There's no time to explain. Please, Verlaine!"

Diane Verlaine gestured at Connors meaning " _How there's no time to explain? You just don't drop a bomb like that and wait the people to accept that as if it were nothing_ " Certainly the station will be destroyed in the next moments but Ripley could talk as she walk. " _Multitasking, Ripley_ "

After the little rant, Verlaine returned to her predicament: How they´re going to evacuate her people.

-"There's no place for us to dock, Ripley. The station's tearing free from its gravity mooring." Verlaine informed Ripley the situation, seeing again _Sevastopol_ drifted another hundred meters, making Connors correct the approaching vector constantly.

With the dry dock destroyed there's no way the ship will dock, and not to say another cable driven spacewalk " _No fucking way_ " the captain thought. But there was another option, one not used since the station was constructed.

Most of the people didn't realize big space stations not always weren't constructed in the place where they´re located. They were towed by cargo ships just as the _Torrens_ , using a towing clamp in a manner similar to the old transport trucks or tug boats on earth back in the 20th century. The _Torrens_ itself was an _M_ -class, one of these ships used to haul transports and refineries all over the human space and her ship still had the clamp installed.

-"I've seen a towing platform below the spaceflight terminal but the _Torrens_ umbilical isn't built for it. You need to extend the tow platform clamps station side." Verlaine explained the plan in hand.

-"Just get into position." was Ripley's only response. Actually, the engineer had understood what Verlaine planned, on her adventure aboard _Sevastopol_ she had read logs left all over the station on terminals, and a few were dated back when the station was constructed and brought here.

-"Connors, you heard the lady. Bring us close and prepare the towing clamp." She ordered his pilot and first officer.

-"I'm on it, Captain." The officer typed on the console and prepared for the maneuver.

The _Torrens_ arrived just outside the spaceflight terminal, thankfully the bigger fragments floating around have been pulled by the gas giant and it was relative safe for the ship now. Connors maneuvered the ship on that way its thrusters faced the station and turned it off, the ship stopped and then, he activated the _Torrens_ ' retro rockets.

-" _Torrens_ to Ripley. Ripley, we're about to move into position for the auto umbilical dock sequence. We'll be dark on comms until we've matched the decaying orbit of the station and are in position. We're just waiting on you to extend the towing platform clamps. I don't know how you sweet talked me into this."

-"Actually Captain, it was your idea-" Connors said.

-"Shut up, Connors"

She had to admit Connors was right, she'd come with the idea of docking in the old towing platform, and it wasn't Ripley's fault they had been stranded on _Sevastopol_. She was only a passenger on Taylor's mission. " _Speaking of, where was Taylor or Samuels?_ " Diane wondered. Ripley's voice had sound muffled as if she was on a spacesuit, the only reason Verlaine thought for doing that is if she realigned the main antenna manually in order to send a message.

-" _Sevastopol_ , this is Diane Verlaine of the _Torrens_. I'm attempting to dock on the low platform below your spaceflight terminal. We can take survivors." Verlaine called.

But as she didn't get a response, she confirmed the fact the antenna was manually fixed and as the station and _Torrens_ position changed, the comms link broke. She hopes she would reestablish contact when the _Torrens_ was in position right outside.

-"Ripley. I'm awaiting your signal. Do you read? Do you read?"

No response yet. _Sevastopol_ shuddered and explosions erupted from various places, one of the upper transit tubes between towers flared when it was broken by torsion.

-"Hurry Ripley, we don't have much time. The station's falling apart!" She exclaimed; not sure if Ripley had heard her.

-"Verlaine, can you hear me? Are you close enough for radio contact? I'm here!" Ripley called.

-"Ripley! Thank God, I hear you! I need you to extend the dock cradle clamps, quickly! There are two, should be close by" Verlaine instructed on radio, there was no time to loose. Then, she told Connors. "Show me the aft cameras; I want to see when ready."

She also wanted a visual confirmation of her personnel through the docking control station's windows. The place was engulfed in flames, and for a moment she doubted Ripley was capable of do the job because of that. Seconds later, the security braces on the towing clamp unlocked.

-"That's it, Ripley. Now use the terminal to extend the docking clamp." Verlaine regretted she'd doubted on the young engineer capacities.

-"Verlaine, the docking clamps are engaging" Ripley said, the long coupling clamp extended outwards until it reached the docking base of the _Torrens_ , then it descended and locked. Verlaine and Connors cheered.

-"Okay, now find the upper control room." One last thing, she directed Ripley to the control booth upstairs where they can extend the umbilical and board the ship.

-"Shit. Verlaine, the personnel umbilical has been removed. It's long gone!" Ripley called.

-"What?" Great! more bad news.

-"Wait –I think I can use the maintenance rig instead. If I can find an EVA suit I can still get to you." Amanda suggested

The maintenance rig was a long corridor which ran all over the docking clamp extension, it had a small, two-person gondola for transporting an EVA engineer team to repair malfunctions or simple maintenance duties, what Ripley suggested was making an EVA walk back to the _Torrens_ and then accessing the ship through the upper hatch.

-"I found a compression suit, Verlaine. I'll be on my way as soon as I get dressed." Amanda said.

-"Ok, Ripley" Verlaine responded.

-"What the-" Ripley exclaimed.

-"Ripley? Ripley? What happened?" Verlaine called, but he heard what she though was static, it took her two seconds to realize it was a scream followed by a screech and pounding noises.

\- o -

 **A/N: Hello readers, We're near the end of this novelization, this is actually chapter 32 but chapter 31 is, well, in progress now and soon it will be uploaded, but as it didn't affect this chapter continuity it could be added later. I hope you enjoy this and please comment.**


	35. Chapter 34: Endgame

" _A lioness will use all of her strength even when hunting a rabbit._ "

― Kazuki Nakashima, _Kill la Kill, Vol. 3_

 **December 12th, Earth Central Time. Decaying orbit around the gas giant KG-348.**

-"Ripley? Ripley? What happened?" Radio crackled, but Ripley was unconscious, dragged through a vent by one of the creatures.

Anger, all the creature could feel now was anger. The creature has been resting on the nest about an hour ago with the rest of its brethren, and then Hell loose on them. The alarms blared, red lights blinked and electric and plasma discharge incinerated everything all on its path. The giant, immobile creature acting as the appointed ruler of the colony was incinerated on its biomechanical throne and the chambers filled with the screams of the hosts that weren't dead yet, those recently brought by the assault on the Rec room.

Its screams were heard by every other creature aboard _Sevastopol_ ; those which weren't killed by the reactor's purge were paralyzed by the hive mind link they shared, feeling the same pain their brothers felt. After the pain passed, and unable to reconnect with the other members of the hive, the Creature was flooded with anger, and that was the reason it followed the intruder's scent it picked up on the hive.

Losing it for a while, it located it again and it resumed the chase, until the creature grabbed the woman from a vent above her. The creature didn't bother on sting her as the woman hit her head and was unconscious.

She will pay for destroying the nest, and certainly will not be by the easy way. It glued its prey to a wall where survivors from the nest brought recently picked prey, captured after the nest was destroyed with the intention of creating a new one, this time on the upper parts of the station. She will be a host and give birth to a new creature.

\- o -

-"Ripley? Please respond!" Verlaine insisted. She and Connors had heard the woman scream, and Verlaine started to think something really bad had happened to her.

-"Is she-" Connors asked.

-"I don't know what the Hell is happening there-" Verlaine responded.

The station shuddered again and fell a few hundred meters into the planet's atmosphere, dragging the docked Torrens with it.

-"Connors. Fire up the thrusters" Diane ordered the frightened officer "That will buy us a few more minutes!"

The Torrens thrusters came back to life and the whole ship shook. The tiny ship was struggling as she wasn't rated for heavy hauling. It only kept the station from falling for about ten minutes, and then _Sevastopol_ dragged them for another kilometer.

-"It's not working, Captain!" Connors screamed. The console sizzled and sparks showed over the pilot. "We need to detach or we'll be dead too!" He grabbed a fire extinguisher and sprayed the carbon dioxide dust over the panel, the fire was controlled.

-"I'm not gonna let Ripley stranded. Not while she's still alive" Verlaine said.

-"We don't know if-" Connors' sentence was cut short by the sound of twisting metal resonating on the bridge. "What the hell is happening?"

An alert light turned on, the docking clamp was broken and they were unable to detach.

-"Oh no, oh no!" He exclaimed. "The docking clamp is wasted"

Verlaine watched on the aft camera monitor, she saw the grey docking clamp, metal beams coming out of the structure where it had been bent due to the stress caused by dragging. Another of the cameras had a clear view of the maintenance rig; Verlaine hoped she would see Ripley in a space suit walking over it towards the airlock, Nothing.

-"I can go outside, activate the manual release mechanism." Connors offered, get up from his seat and ready to hurry up to the airlock.

-"I'll set to thrusters to maximum. We need all the time we can buy!" Verlaine ordered.

\- o –

-" _Emergency, please attend you assigned evacuation point and await instructions._ "

Amanda woke up coughing; a spinning red light was blaring in a small corridor and… was she standing? She looked her surroundings and the first thing she saw was she was partially glued to the wall in the same manner as the people down the reactor core.

-" _My God!_ " She thought, horrified she'll probably suffer the same fate as all those people.

In front of her, one of the creatures deposited something on the floor. It was one of the egg things she had seen back at the nest. Now she had a clear view of the monster, during all the time aboard she had seen only glimpses of the monsters that had stalked her mother years ago. The creature left the egg and climbed back into a vent above.

" _Unlike my mother, floating in a lifeboat somewhere, I'm gonna die here_ " she continued " _I can't move_ "

She was trying to move but was firmly stuck by the resin like substance. It was hard as steel and also, by some strange reason, it itched.

-" _Orbital stabilizer failure. Abandon station. Abandon station_ " The computer voice gave another of its automated warnings.

Ripley saw the egg in front of her again, the four petal-like lids opened and four bony legs poke out, the creature was ready to emerge. " _That's it, I'm dead_ " Amanda resigned. But before the creature could latch on Ripley's face, a tremor shook the room and one of the pipes at her right exploded in flames that engulfed the egg and the creature inside. Not only that, but it released Ripley's right arm.

Amanda pulled her left arm with the released arm and fell to the floor. She was free but not out of danger, she doesn't know how much time was unconscious and how much time she had before the station fell into the gas giant.

-"Where the Hell am I?" She wondered. She could be anywhere, she hoped wasn't far from the maintenance rig or she'll be screwed. The corridor was partially destroyed; she couldn't say if it was due to the creatures or explosion's damage. It doesn't matter.

She found a map terminal few meters ahead, fortunately it still worked. Better, it showed she was near the docking control room; she only needed to cross what seemed one of the transit tubes. The problem was she had lost all the weapons, namely the flamethrower and the bolt gun she had found in engineering, the only ones capable of keeping creatures at bay.

But as she progressed, Ripley realized that the creatures avoided the burning corridors, which she thought was convenient as long as she stayed close, although she would not be so lucky if a pipe burst and burned her alive. After traversing without major setbacks, except almost being hit twice by a transit car, she reached the towing clamp control room.

-"Verlaine? Verlaine? Are you there? Please, tell me…" Amanda called. She saw the _Torrens_ still docked and its thrusters at full power.

-"Ripley! I thought I lost you! We're being dragged down with _Sevastopol_!" a very grateful voice responded on the radio, followed by more bad news. "The gravitational pull has twisted the rig and we can't get free from the station!"

-"What do you need me to do?" Amanda asked, although she already suspected what the answer would be.

-"Get out the airlock and EVA over the maintenance platform. There are explosive bolts on the emergency release. Hurry! _Sevastopol_ is going fast!"

-"Won't let… you down" She said, and ran for the airlock.

\- o -

-"Thanks God, she made it!" Verlaine was relieved, she'd just saw a tiny figure in a compression suit walking on the maintenance rig's catwalk over the aft external cameras.

A new alarm blared on the console, there was a rise in the temperature on the ships keel. The station and the _Torrens_ were entering KG-348's upper atmosphere and the friction was heating the underside of both, _Sevastopol_ and the _Torrens_. "Hurry up Ripley, no much time is left" Verlaine crossed fingers.

The maintenance rig gondola stopped and Ripley walked the last ten meters to the clamp, now she can't see Ripley because the clamp blocked the view.

\- o -

The creature was filled with rage. Pure, raw and instinctive rage. The new nest was also destroyed and the pheromone signature from its prey indicated she had escaped. The creature had followed her through a series of vents and adjacent corridors because she was smart, she'd been moving through corridors which were on fire, and fire caused the creature pain.

It finally reached her just before she escaped through a reinforced door. The creature hissed. Unlike the other doors which opened automatically when it was near, these thick doors don't, once more time its prey had squeezed out of reach.

-" _Orbital stabilizer failure. Abandon station. Abandon station_ "

Again, that sound filled the hollow cavity inside the creature's head, unable to detect its source. At that moment, the whole room shook and a strong air current dragged the creature to a large glass window. The station was falling and the drag caused a massive decompression which expelled the creature from _Sevastopol_.

The alien landed in a steel beam and quickly it clung to the structure. It felt tiny rock particles pelt on its exoskeleton. Outside, the pressure was almost zero and the gel pores on its head expanded, not as painful as with fire but uncomfortable. A tiny layer of air allowed the creature to hear and smell, albeit barely. All the sounds the creature could interpret were the station's atmospheric drag and the rocks hitting on the structure, and then, the very faint sound of footsteps. Pheromone signature was not found, but the creature perceived the screak of machinery and movement, along with an electromagnetic emission somewhere front and above it. It followed the source.

\- o -

-"I'm here, Verlaine." Ripley called on radio. Verlaine sighed. She had reached the clamp just above the _Torrens_ , now she had to set the manual release and jump into the ship before the Station burned on the atmosphere.

-"There should be two priming mechanisms to unlock the manual release." Verlaine guided her. "The clamp had a security mechanism to avoid accidental detonation of the explosive bolts."

-"I see them" Ripley walked to the first of two consoles. There was an access card behind a duro-plastic box, and a handle right to it.

Ripley pulled the handle once and the duro-plastic lid opened. She took the card and inserted it on the slid. One of the metal braces lifted behind her, " _Good, just one more_ " Ripley though, looking at the brace, then she stopped. " _No_ "

For a moment, Amanda had thought she'd seen on of the creatures crawling above the metal structure of the maintenance rig towards her. She peered again, and she saw it. The black, eyeless monstrosity climbed with so easy as if it was a walk on the park. She was amazed and terrified even the vacuum of space couldn't stop that beast, now she understood W-Y interest on the monster.

She hurried towards the other release mechanism, after the brace lifted, she saw the creature waiting at the end of the rig, perched like a hellish gargoyle there, and its silver teeth seemed to smile at her.

-"Ripley? Ripley? Are you still there? I've set the airlock in auto" Verlaine called, of course she can't see the creature or she wouldn't have done that.

After the braces were released, the panel at the central part of the clamp opened, revealing a keyboard and four cylinders, Amanda knew this was the explosive emergency release mechanism. Once activated the _Torrens_ will be free from the station and will launch full speed from it. There will be no time for run, so she hooked her EVA security cable to the Torrens' railing and proceeded to activate the device.

The four cylinders slowly descended while Ripley watched the creature crawl slowly towards her. At her left, another of the monsters crawled from below the structure, followed by another at the right. The three creatures approached and when the large of the beasts extended its claws and tried to bite her, she pressed the button.

Amanda's view revolved, she saw claws, bony tails and portions of the station spinning in front of his visor, then felt a strong pull before seeing part of the _Torrens_ and hit so hard against the hull of the ship and lose consciousness.

\- o -


	36. Chapter 35: Pompeii

" _You could hear the shrieks of women, the wailing of infants, and the shouting of men; some were calling their parents, others their children or their wives, trying to recognize them by their voices. People bewailed their own fate or that of their relatives, and there were some who prayed for death in their terror of dying. Many besought the aid of the gods, but still more imagined there were no gods left, and that the universe was plunged into eternal darkness for evermore_ "

\- Pliny the Younger, _Letters of the Younger Pliny_.

 **December 12th, 2137. Earth Central Time. Solomons Galleria,** ** _Sevastopol_** **station.**

-"What the Hell was that?! Julia Jones screamed, as the mall shuddered from a strong shock followed by explosions.

As soon as they had boarded the elevator, Lindgard didn't lose time and explained them about the report, they can escape _Sevastopol_ in one of the detachable labs, but they need to arrive at the Systech spire by a transit car. They weren't far from the transit station when the whole place shook.

-"Was that another of Waits' explosive traps?" Lindgard asked.

-"I don't think so, that was a bigger one. This station is falling apart due to a month of no maintenance" Cameron explained "No doubt gas pipes and electric conduits short-circuited and exploded"

-" _Orbital stabilizers operating at 96% and falling_ " The automated computer voice announced " _Emergency, please attend you assigned evacuation point and await instructions._ "

Alarms blared and a series of spinning amber lights illuminated the corridors, on the floor white led lights indicated the direction of evacuation routes. The five survivors stared each other and suddenly they understood time ran out, they had to escape as soon as possible or they will be dead.

-"The stabilizers are out, we're gonna fall into the gas giant!" He said "And it's gonna be fast!"

-"Wait, where the other survivors are? Waits' group, we have to warn them" Lindgard remembered, the Marshal Bureau wasn't far, and if there were other people still alive, they have to save them.

-"There's no time, Doctor" Eva exclaimed, trying to make herself heard over the noise.

-"Get to the transit station, I'll be with you in a minute" Lindgard responded.

Lindgard ran across the Galleria towards the Bureau's entrance, the large mural with all the missing people was destroyed and in some places, sprayed with blood. The work lights at the entrance were lying on the floor.

-"Oh no, not here" Lindgard said, and stepped inside the Marshal Bureau.

The first thing she saw was a body lying against the wall beside a video terminal; blood stain dyed the wall red and dripped to the floor. The body was a man in his late forties and wears a dark blue cap with the words Marshal on it. William Waits.

More bodies were scattered around, fellow survivors, Karen quickly checked the office, apparently, some Working Joe's had stormed the camp and slaughtered the remaining officers. One of the Joe's was deactivated, with gunshots on its face. The cells were opened, the place was empty.

-" _The broadcast from Verlaine just updated_ " A voice crackled on radio, Lindgard turned around and located the source, Waits' headset radio, she picked it up " _Hello Sevastopol, can you respond? We just saw a ship blow on your starboard side –took an entire orbital stabilizer array. We have no place to dock. Please –tell us what's going on there. We can take survivors. I'll leave this channel open. Torrens out_ "

-" _A ship?!_ " she thought " _There's a ship outside and it's trying to help_ " She also had recognized the voice from the radio, Ricardo. So the young officer had managed to get comms online again with someone's help.

-" _Orbital stabilizers operating at 80% and falling_ " computer warned.

Karen called on the radio, in attempt to speaking with the _Torrens_ , but she couldn't, whenever Ricardo or the other survivor he was speaking had make contact it was with his own radio and she only could hear. She hurried herself back to the station taking the headset with her, maybe she can only hear but they would be aware of what was happening.

-" _Orbital stabilizer failure. Abandon station. Abandon station_." Another shudder and the automatic alert system did not wait. " _After evacuation do NOT re-enter the station until advised to do so by the Orbital Emergency Convenor._ "

-"Everyone is dead!" Lindgard said, as soon as she saw the other survivors waiting for her on the station. "But, there's a ship outside! They can't dock but it's trying to help!"

-"We called a car, Doctor, if we make it to the lab they could pick us" Cameron said.

-"Good, Ricardo is also alive. I think he's at comms, we can pick him up too" Lindgard continued. They were headed to the Systech spire, they can join the officer and the _Torrens_ could pick them without the need to dock.

The sound of a metallic crunch made them quiet; the sound increased its intensity and seemed to come from the pressurized tube of the transit system. Then, a sudden explosion shook the place and a current of air flowed to the tube where they were waiting the transit car.

-"Watch out!" Cameron screamed as they were dragged by the current. Julia and Lindgard crashed on the door's grill. He grabbed his sister on time, which was holding the little child. Before they could be dragged too, a set of pressure hatches closed, sealing the place.

-"What the Hell was that?" Julia said, grabbing her hurt arm, her nose was bleeding, as Lindgard's

-"The transit tube broke and caused a decompression, lucky we weren't on the car." He said, getting up. His arms ached to bear the combined weight of his sister and the child.

-"But… coff coff… Now our… coff… Way is blocked." Lindgard coughed, besides she had a cut on her temple, made by a box which almost hit her on front.

-"What are we gonna do?" Eva asked, then turned to calm the child who was starting to cry "Everything's gonna be ok, right? We'll get out of here, there's a ship" but she didn't believe her own words.

-"We have to make it to the labs, but we have to take a detour" Lindgard said.

-"It will take us hours, and not to tell you about the creatures." The Engineer said to the doctor, he was running out of ideas, that crazy plan even sounded impossible to him because he had seen one of the laboratories expelled from the station hours before.

-"There's just one option left." Lindgard told them "Going back to San Cristobal and take one of the ambulance shuttles, and fly it to the lab's outer hatch"

The transit station was a wreck, flames erupted from two of the transit tubes, boxes were turned and air hissed from pipes. But just two tubes seemed intact after the decompression, one leading back to medical and into engineering. Before they could deliberate, shrieks were heard somewhere near.

-"We have to move, now!" Lindgard exclaimed.

-"I'll help you" said Cameron, helping Julia on her feet, she was badly hurt but fortunately she still can walk. His sister and the kid were ok. He pressed the call button for the transit car and they heard how slow it was coming, flames erupted inside the tube.

Pounding sounds resonated above, one –or more –of the creatures crawled on the vent above. They hid stuck to the wall, trying to camouflage themselves in the shadows. Dust fell from the vent grates and a moment later, one of the creatures descended, growling.

" _Shit_ " Julia thought, they were in the open and there was no site for them to hide. She started to tremble; although they already had an encounter with the creature before, when they tested the "noisemaker" she hadn't seen the creature at its whole. It was large, not completely black but with dark green and grey tones, also the dome of its head was slightly translucent. It walked over its fingers, like a dog; " _digitigrade_ " she remembered the word. The others were paralyzed, the creature hadn't seen them yet but it was matter of a few more seconds. Julia saw Cameron pull out his last device out of the duffel bag.

The man slowly, prepared to launch it towards the far end of the station. He signaled the women what he pretended so they will prepare for run into the transit car. When they nodded, he threw the device which immediately started to make a buzzing sound. The creature turned to the source and walked towards it, ignoring the people on the darkened walls.

The others walked quietly and the transit tube finally opened, they entered and then, the automated voice of APOLLO announced " _Transit car to SciMed tower arrived, passengers to San Cristobal Medical Facility and Seegson Synthetics, please aboard._ "

The creature turned again at the new sound source, it screeched because it detected the last of the survivors boarding the car, and chased it, but the doors closed in time and the car departed.

-"Geez, that was close!" Eva exclaimed. Then the car shook, they assumed there were more explosions and the station would fall soon.

-"Let's get to the next car." Cameron said. The transit consisted on two cars with doors at each end, because the cars didn't turned, they only moved forwards and backwards. The walked into the next car, but now noises came from above, like scratches.

-"My God, the creature is over the car!" Julia exclaimed. "It's gonna catch us."

-" _Orbital stabilizer failure. Abandon station, abandon station._ " The computer voice announced as another tremor shuddered the car, the force of the impact thrown Eva and the kid into the other car, Cameron rushed trying to reach her sister but the doors between cars closed, letting them trapped.

-"Cameron, help us!" Eva cried from behind the doors.

-"Hang on! C'mon please, please!" He cried, looking for his ion torch, the bag fell from his hands. Finally he reached the torch and started to cut the door. Behind the door, pounding sound was heard and then the blood chilling screech filled the cars.

-"Noooooo" Cameron exclaimed. Lindgard and Jones remained silent, they knew what happened even before Cameron finished cutting the door and they could see inside the next car.

There was a jagged edged opening on the roof and blood splashes on the walls over the posters and screen. Eva was lying on one of the car's couches, with a piercing wound on her abdomen and blood pouring from her mouth. There was no sign of the kid.

-"Eva, sister! Please, resist." Cameron said to her, Julia had never before seen the old man cry. As a former soldier, he was tough, but he wasn't ready for this, nobody really was.

-"It… it took him… I- tri- tried to." She said, but the blood caused her to pause.

-"Don't talk" Lindgard said to her, pressing the wound, trying to stop the bleeding. She checked the wound, the creature's tail had pierced part of the liver, and there was nothing she could do. "Rest"

She died; Lindgard closed her eyes, a moment later the transit car stopped. The front doors opened and the two women came out, Cameron was still besides his sister's body.

-"Cameron, come. There's nothing you can do" Julia prompted him. "We have to go now"

The computer gave another warning, for a moment they had forgotten the station was in the verge of total destruction, now they have to hurry. The three last survivors ran through the empty hallways of the hospital, now in flames.

Lindgard recognized the reception area, Debris from the explosion was scattered around the place, the fire had almost been extinguished but new flares were emerging from pipes. Ahead was the ambulance bay.

-"Hurry, this way. I only hope there was a shuttle ready." Lindgard said.

Usually, at the hospital were two of the short range shuttles at al times, and another two at the private wards in the Systech Spire. When they arrived, Julia was glad there was one left, judging by the opened hatch, the other hatch was closed.

They entered the ship, and Lindgard sat on the pilot seat, she was the only capable of maneuvering these little crafts. Theoretically everyone could, but Cameron had never been on the need, and Julia wasn't staff, she was a visitor.

-"System Error" the screen on the console reads, there was an error in the shuttle. It was locked and couldn't take off.

-"What?!" Julia exclaimed. After coming this far, now they were trapped? "There has to be a way"

-"The hatch is busted, something about the ambulance incoming to fast and crushing the docking system." Lindgard informed, as she ran a diagnosis. "It won't launch after we seal the hatch."

-"There's just one way this work." Cameron said and left the shuttle, he pressed a button and the hatch sealed. Julia peered through the tiny window at the engineer.

-"What are you doing?"

-"Saving your ass, Julia." He pulled something from the duffel bag and showed her, a crude crafted pipe bomb. "Hang on tight" he said and set it.

The explosive detonated and destroyed the docking hatch, the ambulance bay decompressed, launching forward the shuttle. Lindgard fired the craft's thrusters. Julia was crying behind her.

-"We're gonna make it, Julia." She said.

Through the front window, Julia saw _Sevastopol_ 's exterior, now the entire station was emitting flames from various ruptures in the outer hull. One of the transit tubes broke and Julia could see how the small cars were expelled and disintegrated. Lindgard avoided being hit by some debris and pulled the steering stick of the ship, pushing it up and hoping KG-348 gravity didn't pulled them with the station.

Suddenly, the thrusters went off as the fuel on the ship was depleted, but they were safe, floating lifeless in orbit. They peered outside and saw the last seconds of _Sevastopol_.

Friction between the station and the upper atmosphere of the gas giant heated the lower hull of the former. Torsion made its toll and the engineering platform broke into two pieces, separating the Solomons habitation tower from the rest of _Sevastopol_ , falling on its side and being consumed by the fire, seconds later the other two fell into the clouds and burned alike. The women sobbed thinking and remembering all their friends suddenly vanished from existence. Act followed, a bright light surged from the clouds as _Sevastopol_ 's reactor finally detonated in a nuclear fireball, the shockwave caused the upper atmosphere of KG-348 to ripple.

\- o –


	37. Chapter 36: Bad Dreams

" _Are you sure this isn't a nightmare? And that we won't just wake up? Yes. Because dreamers always wake up and leave their monsters behind._ "

― Alexandra Bracken, In _The Afterlight_

 **December 12th, Earth Central Time. Private commercial vessel** ** _Torrens_** **out of Saint Clair, in orbit around gas giant KG-348.**

The hiss of water vapor and the twinkling red lights awoken Amanda, her visor was clouded with the condensation of her breath. She felt arms and legs heavy and was struggling to get up. When she was finally stood, the hissing was finished and she knew the airlock was completely pressurized.

She didn't remembered how the Hell she'd get inside the airlock; she remembered being expelled from the clamp and the cable making her crash with the _Torrens_ and nothing more. " _Maybe it was pure adrenaline and survival instinct_ " She thought.

The inner hatch opened and Ripley came out from it into the partially darkened corridor. At the junction ahead the lights flickered, the cabinets for the spacesuits were there, Ripley wanted to get out her suit as she felt it claustrophobic, but Amanda felt that with every step she had to make a great effort.

-" _I'm tired_ " She said quietly, " _I'm so fucking tired_ " After all she had experienced, she wasn't surprised this was the case, all the tension, running and the constant fear had made her use all the adrenaline she had in reserve, and now it had ended, her organism relaxed and she felt like the addict who is forced to quit drugs suddenly.

-"Verlaine?" She asked, and obtained no response.

She walked till the junction, the cabinets were empty, she remembered Samuels, Taylor and she had taken the suits when they boarded _Sevastopol_. " _Where are you?_ " she wondered. At least, she expected Verlaine or Connor will be at the airlock waiting for her, but nothing.

The corridor's door leading to the galley was closed. Strange, generally that door was on automatic. The compression suit weighed on her but she did not want to take it off.

-"I'm on my way into the bridge." She reported, but again, no response "Verlaine?"

Amanda pressed the button and the door slid up. To her horror, the first thing she saw was the smooth, elongated carapace of the creature's head. With the room's lighting, Amanda saw it was kind of translucent; a human-like skull staring at her behind the dome, its silvery fangs seemed to smile. She backed away without turning around, slowly. Each step she took was followed by a step of the creature. " _How the Hell it came onboard?_ " Ripley wondered " _It has killed Verlaine?_ " She remembered something about the airlock being on auto, maybe it crawled inside.

Hisses by the creature indicated it was furious, but unlike when they were inside the station and killed poor Dr. Kuhlman as soon as the door opened, the beast did not attacked, it took its time. Amanda wondered if inside its brain the thing was sentient and knew it was her who destroyed the nest and it was taking its time to kill her in revenge. More steps, now she crossed a pressurized door and she noticed she was inside the airlock. The creature followed, waiting until the woman was cornered to tear her in pieces.

Amanda bumped her back against the outer hatch. She was cornered, extended her arms and fumbled; to her right was the button to close the lock. She found it and pressed it, the inner hatch closed and she was trap with the creature, it opened its maw, showing the inner jaw, ready to strike, and at that moment, the outer hatch opened and they were expelled from the ship.

\- o -

-"Amanda?" a voice called her on radio. She was almost unconscious by the lack of air, she barely opened her eyes and closed them again as a light hit them.

She must be dead, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but at least she had killed the last of those monsters, any other had perished on the planet, along with her friends: Ricardo, Taylor, Samuels… Waits, Kuhlman and others she'll never know their names. She'd ended just like her mother, missing floating on space forever.

-"C'mon Amanda, wake up, sweetheart, you're safe now." the voice insisted. It was female, and judging by how she was addressing her, Ripley began to think if she was not already dead and her mother called her. No, her mother wasn't dead, she was stuck in a lifeboat and besides, Ripley wasn't a believer.

She opened her eyes once more time and the light hit her directly, she was lying and her suit had disappeared.

-"She's waking up" another familiar voice said.

When her vision cleared, Amanda saw two women standing over her, one was a short haired redhead, Verlaine, and the other was Afro-American, she seemed familiar too, but she didn't remembered from where.

-"Verlaine!" Amanda exclaimed "How-? But you were… The creature got inside the ship."

-"Dead? You were having a bad dream, Amanda" Verlaine told her. "As soon as you freed the _Torrens_ we were launched full speed, but your safety line must have broken and you were left floating on space."

Amanda sighed in relief, it was a nightmare only. That mean she and Connor were alive, and- "Who are you?" Amanda turned to the other woman.

-"I'm Karen Lindgard. I was the chief medical officer at _Sevastopol_." The woman responded "We are safe now, Amanda." The doctor told her how they came aboard.

\- o -

Lights in the ambulance flickered and then went off, followed by the artificial gravity. Julia and Karen floated in the tiny cabin. They were safe but not for long, as that ship wasn't meant for long travels, they needed rescue fast.

-"Mayday, mayday, this is Karen Lindgard calling from an ambulance shuttle, somebody, please respond." Lindgard called on radio. The ship, _Torrens_ , must've near, she had heard them before. Unless…

-"Mayday, mayday. _Torrens_ , this is Dr. Karen Lindgard calling from an ambulance shuttle, please respond" She insisted, Karen refused to think the ship that moments before was trying to rescue them had gone along with the station. "Mayday, mayday-"

-" _Ambulance shuttle, this is Diane Verlaine of the Torrens, I got you, hang on, we're coming for you_ " the radio crackled. Finally, they were truly safe. Someone was coming and they would live on, they cried part relieved part grief for the people who didn't make it.

\- o -

Ripley now remembered her, she was the woman on that video record she'd saw at the hospital, she had treated Marlow's wife unsuccessfully. Speaking off, she was in the _Torrens_ med bay, it seemed ages ago when she had encountered Samuels right here after waking up from hyper-sleep.

She tried to get up, but the doctor calmed her down "No, no. You need to rest. You were floating around KG-348 for a couple of hours before Verlaine had picked you up; you almost suffocated and received a great amount of radiation. I need to check you out."

-"Hey. Do what the good doctor says" there was another person in a berth besides, a black haired woman with a cast arm "She know what's she doing. I'm Julia Jones."

-"Amanda Ripley, your name sounds falser than a three dollar bill." Ripley said.

-"It's an alliterative stage name, my boss thought-" Julia remembered when she had the same discussion with that man in the bar "I'm a reporter."

-"And your real name is…?" Ripley asked.

-"Ashley McLaren" She responded "But my brother calls me Lee, he lives on Wisconsin. God, I think I'm going back there, I'm sick of fucking space"

-"Wisconsin, eh? I never had been there. All mi life had been in Luna and the colonies."

-"It's nice this time of the year." Julia… Lee said "Maybe you should visit us once."

-"Maybe" Amanda stared at the ceiling, and then she lay on his side and slept.

\- o –


	38. Epilogue: Monster Maze

" _The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma._ "

―Judith Lewis Herman, _Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror_.

 **July 2nd, 2139. Earth Central Time. San Francisco, California, United Americas.**

Ashley 'Lee' McLaren stepped out of the car and walked to the front door, where a man in his 50s was waiting for her.

\- "Julia, are really you?" The man was stunned, like he had seen a ghost.

\- "My name is Lee McLaren, Tom." Ashley corrected him "As far as I know, Julia Jones died aboard _Sevastopol_ station"

\- "Right, it's just... it doesn't matter, please come in". Tom Bradford, the editor in chief of the magazine, invited her inside.

Tom Bradford still did not believe that the day before, his secretary had received a call from the reporter whom Tom thought died when _Sevastopol_ station had exploded due to a reactor accident during the decommision. A memorial had been held for her, after all, Tom had sent her there.

They entered the lobby of the building, a well-lit place due to the glass panel facade of the building. They passed the receptionist sitting at a large desk and boarded the elevator to Tom's office.

Lee felt comfortable in that place, after Sevastopol she had never liked the dark places again, at night she wasn't able to sleep with lights off. After months of therapy, it was one of the few things she had not overcome.

\- "Tell me, Julia... Lee, what had made you come here at last?" Tom explained "It was thought that there were no survivors from the accident."

\- "No, there wasn't, there was no accident, Tom". Lee replied "It was something more terrible, something you can not even imagine in your worst nightmares."

\- "What are you talking about?" Bradford was skeptical "Have you gone to therapy? It's obvious that you may be suffering from post-traumatic stress- "

\- "I've already gone to therapy," Lee interrupted. "In fact, the psychologist recommended that I need to write about it. She did not believe me either, no one on his mind would do it, so I did what she said: I wrote." Ashley handed her a disk with a label that read: _Monster Maze_.

After being rescued, she, Dr. Lindgard and Amanda Ripley had discussed what their next course of action would be like. As Ripley had discovered, Weyland-Yutani wanted the creatures and had done more damage than good. the company would even kill them if they knew there were survivors.

Ashley and Karen returned to Earth and offered her an Amanda in a place to stay, but she also said that her mother was missing and that she would continue to look for her. Verlaine and Connor offered the position of Engineer on the _Torrens_ while they'll look for Ellen Ripley.

Back in Wisconsin with her brother, Lee still had nightmares about the experience, no one, nor did his brother know the truth and she had attended therapy. Her psychologist suggested as part of the treatment was to open her fears to more people, write about her experiences to overcome the trauma and so she did, albeit in the form of a science fiction/horror novel.

\- o -

Tom Bradford finished reading the document; He was pale, cold sweat dripped from his face. He looked at Lee and sighed.

\- "Is it true?" He asked: "Because it is a hell of a story"

\- "I tell you, Tom, that story about the reactor accident is a facade, this is the real shit," Lee answered.

\- "And why you brought up now? You weren't never one of those who shut your mouth, the truth above all, isn't it?" Tom insisted.

\- "Those things exist, and people must be warned, What happened there must never happen again, and the Company must pay for its crimes. Publish it, I do not care how... Fiction, real story, conspiracy theory, I don't care."

\- "I'll see what I can do," Bradford agreed, but Lee was already on his way to the door.

\- o -

Five months later, Ashley "Lee" McLaren visited Karen Lindgard at the San Francisco Mercy hospital where she was now working under the name of Kendra Darling, and had an interesting conversation.

\- "The company is financing colonies in the Zeta Reticuli sector," Lindgard told him.

\- "I know, they tend to reject offers of better and more promising places" Lee said: "Do you think they still haven't give up in the search for those creatures?"

\- "Definitely, Ripley said that W-Y placed that order to protect the creatures at the expense of the life of _Sevastopol_ 's inhabitants, no surprise they didn't give a shit about a bunch of colonists" Lindgard replied. "But fortunately, there are few wildcatters willing to try luck on that area, some guys in the Extra-solar Colonial Administration had started to call it " _Bermuda triangle of space_ " with ships mysteriously disappearing there.

-"Yeah, the USCSS _Prometheus_ is the _Maria Celeste_ of space" Lee told her, "The first ship vanishing without a trace, followed by the _Nostromo_ , the _Solace_ , _Sevastopol_ and the _Anesidora_."

The two women paused their conversation and sat in silence for a moment. It sounded like kind of a joke, but they certainly knew that as long as the company kept searching for the creature, no one would be safe.

Noises from the vent interrupted them, Lee couldn't avoid feeling nervous. Lindgard noted this, and calmed her, as the woman expected to see a black, skeletal beast burst from the vent, she was relieved when two little kids came out the opening.

-"Gotcha!" the second kid said to the first one.

-"Kids, I told you not to play that game here, it's dangerous" Lindgard scolded them.

The kids fled the room, still laughing. For them it was only a children's game, but Lindgard saw Lee had her hands clung tightly to the chair's armrests.

\- "It's a very popular game, you know?" Lindgard said: " _Monster Maze_ , I do not know who started it, but it is based on your book, a child, the titular "monster"chases the others in the ventilation system".

\- "Based on my story?" Lee asked "An innocent children's game based on what happened to us?"

\- "Listen, don't blame yourself, you didn't not know this would happen, you published a novel and it was taken as such, and now we have children in all the colonies playing monsters that chase people inside a labyrinth".

\- "The truth must come to light," said Lee. "Even if its not believed, people should be warned."

After a while, and prompting Karen to visit her on her farm in Wisconsin, Ashley left the hospital and took a taxi to the airport. Karen opened her desk, extracted a copy of the book and read the last paragraph that Lee McLaren had written, a quote from a former writer, as usual in Julia's previous works, she liked to quote people from the 20th and 21st centuries.

" _Even in times of trauma, we try to maintain a sense of normality until we no longer can. That, my friends, is called surviving. Not healing. We never become whole again... we are survivors. If you are here today... you are a survivor. But those of us who have made it thru hell and are still standing? We bare a different name: warriors._ " Lori Goodwin, 21st century war veteran turned science fiction author.

\- o -

 **The End.**

 **A/N: Hello, readers. I have been revising this story and I realized the epilogue wasn't much of my liking, so I changed it a little, I hope you liked. Second epilogue about what happened to W-Y science director in Porrima coming soon.**


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